Minimum Wage Protest

6/11/2012 (Updated 11:01:09 PM)

(Source: Fox 40 Staff)

Members of Citizen Action were protesting outside Binghamton City Hall Monday, calling it a "war against the poor".

Advocates of a higher minimum wage assailed New York State Senate Republicans for not bringing a minimum wage bill to a vote.

The State Assembly passed a bill last month that would hike the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour and index future raises to inflation.

New York hasn't raised it's minimum wage in eight years.

"Who's going to bail out the poor? Who's going to bail out people that are on minimum wage? Who's going to bail them out? We're their voice. We need the support of every citizen in the Southern Tier because I can tell you this - big business has it's supporters," said Lawrence Parham of Citizen Action

Some business groups oppose the wage hike.

They say businesses who rely on minimum wage workers would be forced to lay off people if the minimum wage were raised to $8.50 an hour.

The hike would represent an increase of over 17%.

According to a new Siena Poll, support remains strong for increasing the minimum wage.  77% of the people who were polled support raising the wage from $7.25 per hour $8.50.

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