Tompkins County Living Wage Updated Today – Now $15.37/hour
Alternatives Federal Credit Union has announced the updated 2019 Tompkins County Living Wage, calculated through their biennial Living Wage Study which has reached its 25-year Anniversary this year.
The Living Wage is now $15.37 per hour for a worker who receives no health benefits at work, up from $15.11 in 2017-18.
Alternatives announced the results of this year’s study at a press conference and discussion panel on May 3. You can view the video of the live stream of the event here. [Video courtesy of Mike Hanlon]
For workers with employer-sponsored benefits identical to Alternatives’, the rate is $14.28; if an employee has insurance 100% covered by an employer, reductions to cost of living can bring the minimum Living Wage rate lower. For documentation of the 2019 Alternatives study and previous studies for comparison, go here.
Costs of living continue to outpace the amount of money workers can earn on the minimum wage, even with New York’s minimum wage higher than the federal rate. This is why the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, along with a coalition of workers, businesses, and local governments are campaigning for a Living Wage Minimum Wage. One of the panelists at the 2019 Living Wage press event, Dr. Ian Greer, Senior Research Associate at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, presented initial findings of the Living Wage Working Group’s research into low wage work in the county, which is proceeding into research of economic effects of such an increase. The fact sheet on this work can be found here.
Panelists for this year’s announcement whose remarks you can hear in the livestream video are:
** Eric Levine, Chief Executive Officer, Alternatives Federal Credit Union
** Karl Graham, Chief of Community Development, Alternatives Federal Credit Union
** Nazelle Davis, Living Wage employee and Member Experience Associate, Alternatives Federal Credit Union
** Svante L. Myrick, Mayor, City of Ithaca
** Leni Hochman, Former Chief Operations Officer and instrumental in conducting Alternatives’ first Living Wage Study in Tompkins County in 1994
** Ashley Cake, Co-owner of The Watershed, Certified Living Wage Employer and Alternatives Federal Credit Union Board, Director
** Ian Greer, Senior Research Associate in the ILR School of Cornell University
** Pete Meyers, Coordinator and one of the founders of the Tompkins County Workers’ Center
** Rob Brown, Operations Manager, the Tompkins County Workers’ Center and Alternatives Federal Credit Union Board, Director
May 5, 2019 @ 9:13 am
Thank you for your work on this! In my experience, though we say 40 hours a week, my full time job is actually 35 hours a week which would bring the living wage up to $17.56 an hour. I’d say in Tompkins County it’s still hard to make ends meet at that amount. This study is an important tool in fixing the problem of low wages and high cost of living and I’m very grateful that attention is being paid to this and that Alternatives does this. Thanks for all you do to help workers!!!
June 17, 2019 @ 2:05 pm
There has got to be a way to lower housing costs in this area. Families struggle every day just to make ends meet and too often children lose out on food or safe housing just to survive. Many families are force to live in dangerous areas or slum housing just to say they have a roof over their heads. And too often those children are also missing out on community activities because families have to choose between living costs and being able to play a sport or participate in community events. That really is unfair.
June 29, 2019 @ 7:41 pm
I work for a company that said at the time of my being hired they pay the cost of living wage,they offer medical insurance a t a cost to in the amount of 140.00 every two weeks.They also stated that we would receive a pay increase on our anniversary date.I was told due to the budget they were giving everyone their annual raise at the end of last December.So we didn’t get the cost of living increase and I did not receive my annual raise on my ayear anniversary.I am only making 13.54 an hour working 37.5 hours a week as I am told this coop doesn’t offer anyone 40 hours a week.Can you please tell me what I can do I have documentation that tells what and when increases are given.