Where do the 2025 mayoral candidates stand on minimum wage?

The mayoral candidates can all agree on one thing: The city needs a higher minimum wage.

Raise Up NY, a coalition of labor groups, businesses and community groups that fight for fair wages, polled the candidates on their minimum wage positions through a questionnaire that they exclusively shared with City & State. Currently New York City’s minimum wage is $16.50, which the coalition and candidates argue doesn’t reflect the financial realities of living in New York City. 

The candidates’ specific proposals vary in method and scope, as City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams advocated for “at least $20” and said increases should be indexed to inflation, while Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani’s ambitious $30 by 2030 plan has been a key campaign slogan since February. However, as of right now the city does not have the authority to set its own minimum wage due to a 1962 court ruling. The New York state Legislature along with the state Department of Labor determines a minimum wage for the entire state. The city can propose their own desired wage, but the state Legislature must pass a law to establish it. 

Mayoral candidate and state Sen. Jessica Ramos introduced the Raise the Wage Act in 2023, to raise the minimum wage to $21.25 by 2026. In 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to annually increase the minimum wage by $0.50 until 2027 when the wage would begin to be adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index, which is a tool that helps measure inflation. “At the time, I had proposed going further – $26 by 2026 – but that idea was rejected by this very coalition,” Ramos wrote. The state senator told the group she was “encouraged” by the current support for $30 by 2030. That goal is far less conservative than former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $20 by 2027 plan. She endorsed Cuomo on June 5. 

City Comptroller Brad Lander proposed a $24 minimum wage by 2030. As a member of the City Council, he passed legislation that guaranteed a living wage for for-hire drivers and required minimum pay for deliveristas working for food service apps. Lander criticized the former governor for “eroding” the city’s minimum wage and that his proposal was not “remotely adequate” for a city with housing costs and affordability issues like New York. 

As of February 2025, 1 in 4 New Yorkers are living in poverty, which is up 23% from 2024. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, the estimated living wage in the city is over $30 per hour. 

Cuomo and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer did not respond to the questionnaire. However, Stringer’s spokesperson told City & State that he supports a $20 minimum wage. Cuomo aims to “build upon the successful work” he did as governor when he raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour. 

While Cuomo touts his "successful work” during his tenure as governor, many remember a different story. Cuomo resisted efforts from city leaders to raise the minimum wage, initially rejecting former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal in 2014 and stood against indexing the $15 minimum wage to inflation after he passed it. 

Candidates Whitney Tilson and Michael Blake were not included in Raise Up NY’s survey. Tilson, though, supports raising the minimum wage by $1.50 to $18 in 2026, to $19 in 2027, and to $20 in 2028, he said. 

Some economists and businesses fear that raising the minimum wage will have an adverse effect on employment and decimate small businesses that cannot afford to pay workers higher wages. However, all of the mayoral candidates share the consensus that people cannot afford to live on the current minimum wage. 

Blake said the focus should not be on minimum wage, but a living wage. He said data shows a living wage is $67 per hour in New York City.

“Bare minimum is not what New York deserves. We need to help people live and to thrive,” Blake said.