Repeals the minimum wage reimbursement credit

Justification

The 2013 New York State Budget raised New York's minimum wage through a three-year phase-in that will reach $9.00 in 2016. While there are many who believe that this increase did not go far enough, fast enough and that it should have included local control and indexing that would cause the wage to automatically rise along with inflation or the cost of living, any increase in the minimum wage goes a long way to helping thousands of hard-working New Yorkers who are struggling just to make ends meet. However, the minimum wage agreement also included what amounts to a poison pill, in the form of an uncapped, taxpayer-subsidized credit that perversely incentives businesses, including mega-corporations, to replace adult workers with teenagers and keep wages as low as possible.

Simply put, this tax credit is an ill-conceived, counterproductive piece of policy and a waste of precious resources. While there is no cap on the amount of the credit that can be allocated, it is corservatively expected to cost the state between $20 and $40 million per year. The ostensible goal of improving the employment prospects of young people could be vastly better served by any number of initiatives that would not carry the same disastrous incentives such as more than doubling funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program.

There is also essentially no protection for fired workers. While firing someone solely to get this tax credit is technically against the law, technically only matters if the person who gets fired: knows about the tax break, knows about the law, knows that she got fired so she could be replaced by an eligible teenager, can prove that her employer's desire to access the credit is the only reason she was fired, and has time to wait for her case to be resolved within an overburdened, underfunded system.

This tax credit has been roundly criticized not only by workers' rights advocates and other voices from the left, but by staunchly business- friendly outfits from the Wall Street Journal to Crain's New York Business to the Empire Center for New York State Policy. No less than Greg David of business-friendly Crain's New York described the specifics of the tax break as follows:

"The state will subsidize the entire increase in the minimum wage for workers between 16 and 19 in the first year and up to 75% in the third year, when the wage is increased to $9 an hour. So firing someone 20 and over and replacing them with someone the right age offers employers a bonus of $1,560 to $2,808. Only people making exactly the minimum wage qualify for the credit, so there is a strong incentive not to pay any more. Oh, and the credit is available to all companies. McDonald's franchises upstate will get a lot of benefits; those in the city who routinely pay more than the minimum wage now have an incentive to lower wages."

This is a bad and destructive piece of policy and a waste of taxpayer dollars. It is in the best interest of workers, responsible businesses, and the State as a whole that this tax credit be repealed immediately.

Fiscal impact

Significant savings to the state.

Legislative history

2013-2014: S.4500

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2016.