The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has
approved a proposed increase in the minimum wage for workers at Kennedy, LaGuardia
and Newark airports to $19 per hour by 2023.
That figure, if finalized by the board during a second vote
in June, would be the highest minimum wage at airports in the U.S., according
to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
"This is an unprecedented win for 40,000 contracted
airport workers in an ongoing campaign led by thousands of cabin and terminal
cleaners, wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers, security and other
contracted service workers," H...ctor Figueroa, president of the SEUI's
northeast branch, said in prepared remarks Thursday.
The minimum wage increases would begin this year for Newark
workers, who currently can be paid as little as $10.45 but will see that
threshold rise to $12.45 on Sept. 1. The minimum wage at Kennedy and LaGuardia
is currently the same $13 per hour that applies to all New York workers. Raises
for the New York airport workers would begin on Sept. 1, 2019, when the minimum
wage at Kennedy and LaGuardia, as well as at Newark, would go up to $15.60. The
increases would then continue in tandem at the three airports through
2023.
The proposed wage increases at the New York metro area
airports would be the biggest victory yet for the SEIU, which launched a
nationwide fight for contracted airport workers in 2012.
Los Angeles Airport (LAX) workers are currently slated to
enjoy the highest minimum wage at a U.S. airport. Workers at LAX must be paid
at least $17 per hour by July 2021.