The City Council has been working on a living wage bill that would raise the minimum hourly wage to $10-11.50 for companies that receive substantial city subsidies. But now it looks like one of the biggest development projects, the Hudson Yards, may be exempt from the proposal, thanks to mayoral hopeful City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
According to the NY Times, "The Hudson Yards exemption caught many of the bill’s supporters by surprise, according to people who were briefed about the legislation in telephone calls in recent days and in a meeting on Thursday morning. Some supporters of the legislation were already concerned that it would not apply to enough employers, and raised concerns that the bill was being further weakened."
City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx), one of the supporters, said, "While I’m not happy with excluding any project, the fact that one project is excluded, if that’s something that the speaker’s office insists on — in my view, that should not derail the whole deal." FYI, Mayor Bloomberg hates the bill.
The development company behind the project, Related, is politically powerful—the Times reports Related employees have donated $34,000 to Quinn's mayoral campaign. And A press release from Related stated, "Over 20,000 construction jobs will be generated by the construction of the Coach Building. Over 100,000 construction jobs will be generated by development of the Eastern Railyard (including over 80,000 direct jobs) and over 10,000 permanent new jobs will be generated upon completion of both yards, which will also serve as home to 30,000 office workers." Related has already opted to hire a California firm for the construction.
