On March 10, 2026, New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse introduced the “$30 for Our City” bill, which will seek to gradually increase the minimum wage to $30.00+ per hour by 2032 for all private employees in New York City. It is important to note that this is just a proposed bill and not signed into law. It is, however, useful for NYECA members to be aware of this bill and track how it proceeds through the City Council.
Before discussing the contents of the “$30 for Our City” bill, it is worth providing a brief summary of how a bill becomes a New York City law. After being proposed by a council member, the bill is referred to the relevant committee (in this case, the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection). The committee will hold a public hearing for comments and council members’ questions. After the public hearing, the bill faces its first hurdle – a committee vote. If the committee vote fails, the bill dies. If it passes, the bill proceeds to a vote by the entire New York City Council. If the bill receives a majority of the votes from the New York City Council, it goes to the Mayor’s desk for one of the following actions: (i) be signed into law, (ii) be vetoed back to the Council, (iii) or to take no action, at which point the bill will become a law after 30 days. A veto can only be overridden by a two-thirds majority vote of the City Council.
The above lifecycle of a City Council bill should demonstrate that just because this bill was introduced does not guarantee it will be signed into law. Even if it does eventually progress into law, it may be revised multiple times from its initial form.
As to the proposed legislation, the “$30 for Our City” bill creates two separate tracks towards the $30 per hour wage depending on the employer’s total number of employees. While the computation is based upon the total number of employees the company employs nationwide, this law would only apply to those employed within New York City. Companies with less than 500 workers (based upon a weekly average of the number of full-time, part-time, and temporary workers over the prior calendar year) would be subject to the following minimum wage increases:
Companies with more than 500 employees would have a shorter ramp-up period:
After reaching the final increases listed in either of the above sequences, on each subsequent January 1st, the minimum wage would be adjusted in accordance with the increase in the cost of living as calculated by the annual rate of inflation based on the consumer price index for all urban consumers (the CPI-U). Thus, the minimum wage will not stop at $30 and will continue to increase annually.
As with similar employee-rights legislation, there are also clauses protecting employees from retaliation for asserting their rights under the law as well as penalties against employers for violating the requirements. The violations would be steep and create both administrative enforcement mechanisms as well as a private right of action for employees to bring direct claims against employers.
Administrative enforcement would be handled by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which would be able to enforce the law through worker complaints, agency investigations, administrative proceedings and city-initiated civil litigation.
Employees or ex-employees could also bring their own private lawsuits within six years of an alleged violation.
Available remedies would include back wages, interest, liquidated damages equal to twice the amount of underpaid wages, and additional civil penalties. Private plaintiffs could also recover attorneys’ fees. In retaliation cases, employers could face damages equal to the greater of three times the wages that would have been paid or $250 per day for each day the violation continued until final judgment. Additional penalties would apply upon a showing of pattern-or-practice violations or notice and recordkeeping violations.
While we continue to stress that this bill was just introduced this past month and is far from being codified, it is worth at least noting this push to dramatically increase the minimum wage. It is also important to recognize that the minimum wage is strictly regarding cash wages; benefits received by an employee do not count towards the minimum wage requirements.
Assuming the bill were to be enacted as proposed, it would affect employers with 500 or more employees on January 1, 2027, because the CBA states that a 1st year Apprentice and “M” Helper-1 are scheduled to earn $19.25 per hour. On that January 1, 2027, large employers would have to pay their 1st year apprentices and “M” Helper-1s an additional $0.75 per hour to meet the $20.000 minimum wage.
We will keep you apprised as this bill moves through the City Council.