Gov. Cuomo’s push to hike wages got some rock-star power as musician Jon Bon Jovi jumped on board with a rally Thursday.
“Raising wages is about fairness. It’s about giving more hard working New Yorkers more of a shot at making ends meet,” Bon Jovi said at a packed union rally in support of a higher minimum wage for fast food workers.
“The economy has come back, but not for all Americans. This issue is about paying people a living wage, while addressing the real cost of living.”
Cuomo, who took the stage to Bon Jovi’s “Work for the Working Man,” called for a wage boost even as he disparaged the term “income inequality,” the signature issue of his frenemy Mayor de Blasio.
“People call it income inequality. I don’t use those words, ‘income inequality.’ Why? Because we never said we were all going to have equal incomes,” he said. “It’s not about income inequality. It’s not about disliking rich people. I want my daughters to grow up to be millionaires.”
Cuomo has used the term in earnest before, but said Thursday that it “suggests that you don’t like rich people” and that he prefers to frame the issue in terms of “fairness.”
The governor has launched a wage board to devise a pay increase for fast food workers, which could be mandated through executive powers.
He’s also proposed an across-the-board hike to $11.50 in the city and $10.50 statewide, which has so far stalled in the legislature.
“Jobs have to pay a fair wage so you can live a decent life,” he said. “The numbers don’t even add up. It’s not possible to live decently on the minimum wage.”
Cuomo called out fast-food giants by name for paying the state minimum, now $8.75, resulting in their employees collecting millions in public assistance.
“They work full time at Burger King, McDonald’s, they earn a minimum wage. They still get public assistance,” Cuomo said. “What is currently going on is a fraud. And the corporations are getting away with murder.”
The Republican-controlled Senate has balked at Cuomo’s wage plan, and housing debates are dominating the last days of the legislative session, but Cuomo said he’s still holding out hope it will pass.
“In Albany you can never give up hope, right? So you hope until the very end. And it is a fluid situation still. So there’s time on the clock. And we don’t have a firm agreement. So anything is possible,” he told reporters after the rally.
The wage board recommendations for fast-food workers, which don’t need legislative approval, are expected in July.
