GOP Wants Comp Reform as Part of Minimum Wage Hike

Friday, March 25, 2016 | 0

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Some Republican senators are angling for legislation to lower workers' compensation and unemployment expenses for businesses in exchange for their support of a $15-per-hour minimum wage backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to The Buffalo News. 

The newspaper reported Thursday that Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan of Long Island said GOP lawmakers are willing to consider the pay hike if the package includes measures to lower workers' compensation and unemployment expenses, providing tax breaks for small companies and excluding farm workers from the minimum wage.

On the minimum wage debate, one of the discussions legislators are reportedly having includes a provision that would push the the minimum wage increase beyond 2021, the paper said.

Cuomo proposed several measures to reduce workers' compensation expenses as part of his budget proposal this year, but the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board concluded the changes would not reduce premiums.

The Business Council of New York believes Cuomo's work comp reforms are not going anywhere this year, said Lev Ginsburg, director of government affairs for the council, after the legislators threw a roadblock up to the proposals. Ginsburg has said he seriously doubts there will be a second chance this year because what Cuomo originally proposed was "pretty marginal."