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New Times Square Sign Takes Aim at $15 Minimum Wage

By Gwynne Hogan | September 2, 2015 7:52am
 New Times Square billboard takes aim at $15 minimum wage.
New Times Square billboard takes aim at $15 minimum wage.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

TIMES SQUARE — A new Times Square billboard bites back against the campaign to raise part of the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"Who needs an education or hard work when Gov. Cuomo is raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour?" the billboard reads.

It depicts a man with a scruffy beard and sunglasses making a pucker-lipped face.

"What? I get $30,000 a year with no experience or skills?" it reads.

The billboard was paid for by the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative research group based in Washington, D.C. 

It's part of a $100,000 push to fight a hike in the minimum wage in the New York City area, said Michael Saltsman, a spokesman from the Institute. It went up Aug. 24 on the southeastern corner of Broadway and 46th Street and will be up for a month.

The New York State minimum wage has been $8.75 since Dec. 31, 2014 and is scheduled to rise to $9 at the end of this year. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25, a move opposed by the Employment Policies Institute, according to its website.

The new billboard comes at a pivotal time for fast food workers who have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage for years. In July, a state labor board approved a phased-in $15 minimum wage for employees of some fast-food chains but the measure still has to be approved by the the state’s labor commissioner.