Pols Accuse Bloomberg Of Bias Against "Living Wage" by Jaya Saxena - Gothamist

Is Bloomberg submarining wage earners..?

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In June, the city's Industrial Development Agency decided to pay $1 million to economists to study a living wage proposal for workers on city-backed developments. But now, Agency board members Comptroller John Liu, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. aren't so sure that study will be completely unbiased. Their representatives wrote, "The study will be subject to the biases of a study team that is being chosen by the mayor's office." And that bias would most likely be against a wage raise. If that's the case, then maybe he hasn't heard about the rent recently.

The proposal would require workers on city-backed developments to make $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 without benefits. But the three pols say the Bloomberg Administration is already against raising wages, believing it would put a burden on businesses, which is why the pols are trying to take back their decision. But Seth Pinsky of the city Economic Development Corp. says they study is just looking for the truth. He said, "Just because we have opinions on the subject does not mean that we are 'cooking the books.'"

The study's goals are to collect information on the city's wage practices, evaluate the economical impact of wage requirements and, "Develop methodologies for the assessment of the impact of wage requirements on the City’s economy, workers and residents." We're going to go ahead and guess that higher wages are better for workers, but we're not economists or anything.