Pouncing quickly on Gov. Cuomo’s sudden shift to the left, Mayor de Blasio said Monday he’ll push to raise the city’s minimum wage beyond the newly proposed $10.10 statewide rate — possibly to as much as $13 an hour.
Hizzoner wouldn’t commit to a specific figure, saying that state lawmakers first need to pass legislation raising the rate, which isn’t expected to happen until sometime next year.
Such a bill would also have to include a provision allowing New York City and other localities to raise their minimum wage by up to 30 percent beyond the statewide rate.
New York’s minimum wage of $8 per hour is slated to jump to $8.75 at the end of the year and $9 at the end of 2015.
“What I want to focus on is getting the bill passed, because that will automatically take us to $10.10,” de Blasio told reporters after an unrelated press conference in the East Village.
“I am certain we want to go beyond that, but we’re going to have to figure out exactly what that dollar figure is.”
It wasn’t until Saturday, when Cuomo made a bull-rush bid to secure the nomination from the far-left Working Families Party for his re-election run, that the governor agreed to support variable minimum-wage rates across cities around the state.
But back in February, the governor spoke adamantly against the idea, worried that such an initiative could become “chaotic.”