NOHO — Planned Parenthood of New York City announced on Tuesday a commitment to increase the minimum wage paid to its employees to $15 an hour, in support of the ongoing "Fight for $15" movement.
The announcement comes on a day when Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other elected officials are expected to attend Fight for $15 rallies around the city, which promote raising the minimum wage in New York State to $15 per hour.
The NoHo-based organization's president and CEO, Joan Malin, said a statewide increase would particularly help women.
"As one of New York City's leading sexual and reproductive health care providers, we care for patients every day who are working full-time yet are struggling to make ends meet," Malin said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood has a health center in each of the five boroughs, and the increase would also apply to its administrative staff at its NoHo headquarters.
PPNYC's board already approved a minimum wage increase over the summer. This new increase will have all PPNYC paid at least $15 an hour by 2017.
In the meantime, the minimum wage for PPNYC staff will increase to $14 an hour for most titles on Jan. 1, 2016, the organization said.
Almagated Bank, headquartered in Chelsea, made the same move over the summer.
De Blasio raised the minimum wage for some workers to $13.13 a little over a year ago, but the issue has become part of the ongoing spats between the mayor and the governor, when Cuomo in February called de Blasio’s proposal of $13 per hour a “non-starter.”
Cuomo, who is aiming to make raising the state minimum wage to $15 a cornerstone of his legacy, previously said a $15 minimum wage proposal by Assembly members of his own Democratic Party was too high.
The Cuomo-appointed state Wage Board voted to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour over the summer, and the Department of Labor approved the increase, Cuomo said at an event in September, with Vice President Joe Biden standing beside him. The increase still requires approval by the state legislature.
In September, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank put up billboard ads in Times Square against the wage increase, mocking it as a discouraging “education and hard work.”
Even an increase to $15 will make most NYC neighborhoods unaffordable for minimum wage workers, according to Streeteasy data.
