Today the wage board of New York State recommended a graduated increase of fast food workers wages to $15 an hour by 2021 in all parts of New York State except for New York City, which would increase to $15 an hour by 2018. As a long time proponent of an increase in the minimum wage I commend the board on its decision, though believe all wages regardless of where you work should be increased, not just fast food workers.
You will hear in the coming days many business leaders decry the decision as destroying business. This happens every time the minimum wage is proposed to be increased or actually is increased. In 2005 I rebutted that argument in the pages of Buffalo Business First with the following column using statistics to show that an increase in the minimum wage won’t hurt the economy but can actually help it, and I think history has shown my argument to be true: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/01/24/editorial2.html?page=all