As many as 40,000 workers at La Guardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International Airports would get the new $19 an hour minimum wage.CreditCreditJames Estrin/The New York Times
By Patrick McGeehan
Sept. 27, 2018
For years, the three main airports that serve New York City have been the site of one of the country’s biggest fights over the minimum wage. A Republican governor and airline companies were pitted against Democratic officials and labor leaders over how much to pay workers who clean planes, load luggage and perform many other duties.
On Thursday, the campaign ended in victory for as many as 40,000 airport workers who are now on a path to earning at least $19 an hour, the highest minimum wage target set by any public agency in the country. The pay increase, which was approved unanimously by the commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will raise the wages of tens of thousands of workers over the next five years.
It will go well beyond the $15 minimum hourly wage that several cities have enacted and that New York State will adopt as the base wage for many workers at the end of the year. And it may add impetus to union-led campaigns to reverse the widening gap in incomes between rich and poor Americans even amid a robust economy.
The vote by the Port Authority board came after several months of deliberation and years of pleading and pressure from unionized airport workers. The airlines that contract with the companies that employ many of the workers also complained about raising wages, arguing that such a move could ultimately force them to pass along the costs to travelers.
The Port Authority operates three of the busiest airports in the country: La Guardia Airport and Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The staggered wage increase will apply to most workers at those airports, including baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and caterers.
By Patrick McGeehan
Sept. 27, 2018
For years, the three main airports that serve New York City have been the site of one of the country’s biggest fights over the minimum wage. A Republican governor and airline companies were pitted against Democratic officials and labor leaders over how much to pay workers who clean planes, load luggage and perform many other duties.
On Thursday, the campaign ended in victory for as many as 40,000 airport workers who are now on a path to earning at least $19 an hour, the highest minimum wage target set by any public agency in the country. The pay increase, which was approved unanimously by the commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will raise the wages of tens of thousands of workers over the next five years.
It will go well beyond the $15 minimum hourly wage that several cities have enacted and that New York State will adopt as the base wage for many workers at the end of the year. And it may add impetus to union-led campaigns to reverse the widening gap in incomes between rich and poor Americans even amid a robust economy.
The vote by the Port Authority board came after several months of deliberation and years of pleading and pressure from unionized airport workers. The airlines that contract with the companies that employ many of the workers also complained about raising wages, arguing that such a move could ultimately force them to pass along the costs to travelers.
The Port Authority operates three of the busiest airports in the country: La Guardia Airport and Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The staggered wage increase will apply to most workers at those airports, including baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and caterers.
“This is going to be the highest targeted minimum wage anywhere in the country,” said Hector J. Figueroa, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents many of the workers. “That’s a significant breakthrough.”
The biggest beneficiaries will be workers at Newark Liberty Airport, some of whom have been earning significantly less than their counterparts at the New York airports, a remnant of a political divide between the two states.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, endorsed the union-backed campaign for a higher minimum wage that has become known as the Fight for 15. But he ran into opposition from Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, with whom he shared control of the Port Authority.
Mr. Christie’s appointees to the agency’s board blocked a proposal to set a higher base wage for the airlines and companies they hire to perform various services at the airports. That left the minimum wage at the airports at $10.45 an hour, well above New Jersey’s statewide minimum wage of $8.60 an hour, but below the fast-rising minimum that Mr. Cuomo had pressed lawmakers in Albany to adopt.
Under New York law, the workers at La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, like many other workers in the state, already earn at least $13 an hour. That floor will rise to $15 on Dec. 31, making New York one of the leaders in the movement toward much higher minimum wages. California and several cities around the country have adopted plans to gradually raise their minimums to $15 an hour. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour.
In what Port Authority officials said was a first for a New York governor, Mr. Cuomo traveled to Jersey City, N.J., where the agency’s board was meeting, to urge the commissioners to approve the measure. “It’s smart, it’s right, it’s fair and you will reap the benefits in dividends,’’ Mr. Cuomo said.
The opposition at the Port Authority began to dissolve this year after New Jersey voters elected Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, to succeed Mr. Christie, who campaigned on a promise to raise the state’s minimum wage. But a vote on the proposal to raise the minimum for airport workers was postponed for several months after airlines challenged the Port Authority’s power to mandate pay for private companies.
In response, the agency produced a comprehensive “analysis and justification” that argued that the airports were plagued by high turnover that threatened to make the airports less safe and degrade the services provided to travelers. It cited the benefits other airports had realized after raising their minimum wages.
“Lifting airport-workers’ wages is now a tried and tested tool, widely used for responding to a recurring set of serious problems at airports around the United States — problems that now beset the Port Authority’s airports, too,” the document stated.
Airlines for America, a trade group in Washington, countered that the agency’s arguments for the wage increase were a “gloss for social welfare policies” and that it would amount to “simply another cost to be borne by the passengers.” After the vote, a spokesman for the group, declined to say whether it would mount a legal challenge to the decision.
The Port Authority’s chairman, Kevin O’Toole, and its executive director, Rick Cotton, said they were comfortable that their action could withstand any legal challenges. “It is our anticipation that within 35 days, there’ll be a minimum-wage increase,” Mr. O’Toole said.
They noted that other airports have sustained wage increases in recent years. Indeed, airports have become a common battleground for unions. Seattle-Tacoma International adopted a $15 minimum wage five years ago. At Los Angeles International, workers must receive at least $13.75 an hour in cash and at least an additional $5.24 an hour in benefits or cash. Airport workers in Orlando and Denver also are pressing for $15 minimum wages.
Mr. O’Toole, a Republican who was appointed by Mr. Christie, has steadily supported the increase. But his predecessor, John J. Degnan, another appointee of Mr. Christie, was adamantly opposed to having the Port Authority dictate how private companies should pay their workers. Mr. Christie also opposed a statewide increase in the minimum wage, the opposite position Mr. Murphy has taken.
The Port Authority resolution calls for its first step toward $19 an hour to occur on Nov. 1, followed by annual increases for the next four years. On Nov. 1, the minimum will rise to $13.60 an hour for workers at the two New York airports and to $12.45 an hour for workers at Newark Liberty.
That impending bump of $2 an hour would be the biggest raise Yasmeen H. Holmes has received since she started working at Newark Liberty in 2004. Back then she was paid slightly more than $7 an hour and now she earns $10.45 an hour for managing the lines at security checkpoints in Terminal C, she said.
Ms. Holmes, 37, said she often works two shifts a day, up to 16 hours in all, to help support her five children, aged 15 to 21, and one grandchild. “I’m getting tired,” she said, adding that she hopes the raise will allow her to work a little less and spend more time with her family.
“I would love to have a vacation,” she said.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 28, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: New York Airport Workers to Get $19 Base Wage.
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