Mayor de Blasio is planning to introduce new legislation to strengthen the city’s so-called living-wage protections in coming weeks, according to City Hall officials.
The current protections were written into law by the City Council in June 2012 — over then-Mayor Bloomberg’s veto.
The law requires most firms that receive at least $1 million in city subsidies to pay their workers $10 an hour with benefits — or $11.50 an hour without.
Bloomberg challenged the law in a federal lawsuit in July 2012 — calling it a job killer — but the suit was dismissed a year later.
He then filed a similar lawsuit in state court just weeks before leaving office in late December 2013.
But de Blasio intends to make good on a campaign promise not only to support the current law but to expand it.
“I can tell you that the mayor supports the city being able to set its own minimum wage, and the ability to expand the number of city-subsidized projects that pay a living wage,” said City Hall spokeswoman Marti Adams.
The push is expected to resemble de Blasio’s campaign platform, which called for fewer groups — only non-profits and affordable-housing projects — to be granted exemptions.
It also calls for lowering the minimum gross revenue a small business needs to get an exemption — from $5 million to $3 million — and for employers to have a plan to provide health insurance.
As public advocate, de Blasio was critical of Bloomberg’s objections to the law — and of the City Council’s successful bid to water it down.
“We must accept a measure of responsibility for all those working at projects subsidized by the city who nevertheless earn wages insufficient to provide for themselves and their families,” he wrote to Bloomberg in late 2011.
Bloomberg’s latest lawsuit argues that the City Council law violates minimum-wage requirements, since those are set at the state and federal levels.
It also argued that the legislation unlawfully curtailed powers given to the mayor under the City Charter.
De Blasio is expected to seek an end to the lawsuit — which was filed on behalf of the city — as he did in seeking a settlement this week on stop-and-frisk. Other attempts to rein in Bloomberg’s initiatives, such as charter schools, are also in the works.
Meanwhile, the mayor also plans to expand the number of workers eligible for paid sick leave.