longisland

Long Islanders earning minimum wage could soon be bringing home fatter paychecks.

New York State Assembly Democrats are pushing to increase the minimum wage statewide to $10.50, with an even greater increase for Long Island, Westchester and New York City.

Assemblyman Phil Ramos is one of seven lawmakers calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to raise the downstate minimum wage from its current $8.75 an hour to $12.50 an hour by Dec. 31, and $15 an hour by December 2018. The proposal then calls for it to rise with inflation starting in 2019.

Owners at some small mom-and-pop businesses, like A Taste of Home Bakery in North Bellmore, say they just can't afford to pay their workers more.

"Our expenses go up every different way, from ingredients to our PSEG bill to our utilities, our fees," said owner Monica Tarantino. "There's not much more that you can keep on doing and expect mom-and-pop businesses to be around."

<strong>News 12 Long Island</strong> reached out to Gov. Cuomo and Republican State Majority Leader Dean Skelos for comment, but has not heard back.

Long Islanders earning minimum wage could soon be bringing home fatter paychecks.    New York State Assembly Democrats are pushing to increase the minimum wage statewide to $10.50, with an even greater

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

At least we'll have that sunshine to kick off your Thursday. So in the morning, we're in the twenties in the afternoon, Kings Park 41 degrees. It will become mostly cloudy again. Uh Tomorrow is very similar to today. We could have a couple of flurries in the afternoon, not a big deal. And then we have sunshine and warmer weather on the way. Look at our numbers the next few days. They're on the rise, especially Saturday to Sunday, Sunday. We are near 60 degrees, but our weather will slow, go downhill through the day. So at the bus stop in the morning, 28 heading home from school 42. With that passing flurry, you can see that we are dry to wake up. The blue color is showing you that cold weather in place. Three o'clock in the afternoon. We have those thirties to near 40 at night into Friday morning, not as cold thirties. And then we get up into the upper forties nearing 50 by Friday afternoon. It's dry with more of a southwest wind. Saturday is my pick of the week. It will be beautiful, sunny and warm Sunday starts out dry with some sun, the breeze out of the south will pick up through the day. Late afternoon. There may be a very brief shower, but you see most of the rain is just sitting off to our west throughout the day and it will approach late in the evening. This is nine o'clock. We have that rain in New Jersey to New York City on our door up most of the rainfalls overnight. So most of us will be sleeping through it. It could be heavy at times with gusty winds and it's out of here by Monday morning, Monday afternoon will improve, but we'll have some lingering gusty winds. So get ready for a cold night. We see those warming temperatures through the weekend with that rain. Sunday night, Monday morning could be a little bit wet and windy with sunshine.

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NY Democrats push for increase in minimum wage