Cuomo Wants to Raise Minimum Wage in Mount Kisco, Chappaqua to $10.50

One piece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Anti-Poverty Opportunity Agenda, a 10-point plan to combat poverty and fight inequality is a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour everywhere in New York state (except New York City, where it would jump to $11.50 an hour).

“It’s too easy to say ’get a job,’” Cuomo said in his announcement Jan. 18. “... when you get the job it means the job has to pay enough so you can pay for rent and you can pay for food and it is a sustainable wage.”

The state is now phasing in previously approved increases in the minimum wage—now currently $8.75, it is set to rise to $9 at the end of 2015.

$10.50 would be the highest state minimum wage in the country.

The Living Wage calculator website by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows typical expenses for Westchester County and the amount adults working full-time need to cover those costs.