The Tompkins County Workers' Center recently joined with a coalition of community organizations and other advocates, spearheaded by the Brennan Center for Justice (of the NYU School of Law), to address the growing problem of minimum wage and overtime violations in New York State.

According to the web site for the Brennan Center for Justice, low-wage and immigrant communities are especially hard hit, with the highest rates of workplace violations but the fewest resources to address them.

The coalition published a report proposing six concrete recommendations for how the New York State Department of Labor can improve its enforcement of core legal protections for workers in low-wage industries and immigrant communities. The Tompkins County Workers' Center had concrete input into this report as a result of their work with people via the Workers' Rights Hotline. 

New York State's Minimum Wage increased from $6.75/hour to $7.15/hour on January 1. Wait staff wages increased from $4.35 to $4.60 an hour. The Worker's Rights Center in Ithaca would like to put out the word that anyone who is not making the new minimum wage can contact the Workers' Rights Hotline at 607-269-0409.

More info: http://www.brennancenter.org/subpage.asp?key=413&tier3_key=46989

http://www.tclivingwage.org/