Living Wage Goes Into Effect
A Suffolk County law requiring all private employers who receive county funding or contracts worth $50,000 or more to pay their employs at least $9 an hour with benefits or $10,25 an hour without benefits, went into effect yesterday. Passed last year, the legislation is expected to benefit day care and home health care workers---often among the lowest paid workers in the county---in particular, according to sponsor and Democratic Legislator David Bishop. Suffolk County has created a fund to assist nonprofit organizations that meet stringent requirements on the maximum incomes of upper-level managers and can prove that the ?living wage? will be a significant burden, and can grant exemptions for such organizations on a case-by-case yearly basis.
See "Living Wage Goes Into Effect", VALERIE BURGHER, Newsday, July 1, 2002