The Bloomberg administration said this week that it planned to require many developers who construct apartment buildings under a popular tax break to pay the superintendents and janitors the prevailing wage, essentially a union-level wage of $18 an hour and health benefits. During negotiations to overhaul the tax breaks, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn urged the administration to adopt the wage policy. The tax benefits are intended to induce developers to build tens of thousands of apartments for low- and moderate-income families.
See "City Backs Union Wages in Tax-Break Buildings", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, January 7, 2007