BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — No matter where you work, there is a push to dramatically bring up the minimum amount you can make. The minimum wage for Upstate New York has already increased by more than 46 percent since 2016. Right now it is at $14.20 per hour, but a new proposal would bring it up another seven dollars over the next four years.
Guercio and Sons manager, Vinnie Guercio, said that the increase would do more harm than good.
"It's just a tough business right now. This industry is just tough right now," Guercio said.
Since the pandemic, Guercio said they are still trying to regroup at the Grant Street grocery store.
"These last few years have been a struggle," he said.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Senator Sean Ryan along with community members are pushing for three policies that they say will fight inflation and support working families:
- End Predatory Court Fees Act which would eliminate the mandatory court surcharge
- Delinquent Property Tax Interest Rate Cap which would cap the interest rate on back property taxes
- Raise the Wage Act which would gradually increase the minimum wage across the state to $21.25 by 2027
"That would go a long way to offset rising housing costs, food costs, and general cost of living here in Western New York," Russell Weaver, Director of Research at Cornell University ILR Buffalo Co-Lab, said.
Weaver said 200,000 workers in the Buffalo-Niagara area would reap the benefits from this wage increase.
"The wage that we have right now doesn't quite catch us up to where we should and need to be to have thriving families here in Western New York," he added.
But for businesses still reeling from pandemic losses, 7 News' Kristen Mirand asked the senator how they would be expected to survive with the wage bump.
"When we raised the minimum wage last time about 9 years ago there was a lot of concern in the business community. You're not hearing it this year because you go to a McDonald's drive-thru and there are signs up saying '$18 an hour start work immediately,' so the private sector is ahead of the law," he responded.
Still, Guercio said an increase will only hurt business.
"When the wages go up along goes the insurance rates so now you're talking more than enough factors going into putting small businesses like ourselves out of business and that's eventually gonna happen," Guercio said.
Guercio said closing down is the last thing they want to see for a family business that's been around since 1961.
"They forgot what America was built on — small businesses and it seems they want to take small businesses out of the equation now," he said.
