Brianne Baird used to make more money. At home in East Bridgewater, Mass., her first and lowest-paying job earned her $6.50 per hour. Now, the Syracuse University sophomore political science major makes $6.15 per hour working at Bath & Body Works at the Shoppingtown Mall in Syracuse. Even at her new, lower wage, she realizes that she’s doing better than many of New York’s unskilled workers.

‘A friend told me I was actually doing fairly well for New York,’ Baird said.

One difference between Baird and some New Yorkers is that she doesn’t have a family to support. She says she couldn’t imagine having to subsist on the New York state minimum wage and believes that workers would have trouble surviving on wages even as high as $10 an hour.

‘Minimum wage should be raised, but I don’t see how they could raise it enough so that people could live off it,’ Baird said.

But the New York State Public Interest Research Group believes that a minimum wage increase will do some good for New York’s low-income, unskilled workers. The group is campaigning for a bill currently facing the New York State Legislature that would raise the minimum wage in the state from $5.15 per hour to $6.75 per hour. The SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry chapters of NYPIRG kicked off its campaign Wednesday in the Schine Student Center, manning a table where students could write letters to elected officials in support of the bill.

New York is one of the few states in the Northeast that sets its minimum wage at the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour, said Sean Vormwald, NYPIRG project coordinator for SU and ESF.

‘New Yorkers are calling upon the legislature to raise it beyond the federal minimum,’ he said.

Vormwald said New York has historically left its wage at the federal minimum. Currently, a person working 40 hours a week at minimum wage in New York would make only $10,712 a year, before taxes. It is difficult for many to live on a wage that low, Vormwald said.

Workers with families aren’t the only ones who depend on the minimum wage. Many students at SU and ESF work minimum wage jobs to pay their way through college, Vormwald said.

Other students are more concerned with the far-reaching economic impact of a minimum wage increase. Keith Stefanchik, a sophomore biology major, believes that raising the minimum wage will hinder the growth of business and slow the economy. Stefanchik believes that New York’s minimum wage accurately reflects the skill level of the state’s low-wage workers.

‘I think it’s fair because they are unskilled labor,’ Stefanchik said. ‘People should do better in school and get the good jobs.’

Published on September 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm