New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani forcefully defended his call for a $30 minimum wage during the final debate of the race Wednesday night, warning that under the status quo, the expensive metropolis is at growing risk of becoming "a museum of where working-class people used to be able to live."
The inability of many New Yorkers to make a livable wage in the city, Mamdani said, "is pushing them to live in Jersey City, to live in Pennsylvania, to live in Connecticut, because they can't afford to live in New York City."
Under Mamdani's proposal, which would have to be approved by lawmakers, New York City's wage floor would rise incrementally before reaching $30 an hour by 2030. The minimum wage would then be tied to either cost-of-living increases or worker productivity jumps.
Mamdani's campaign has noted that the city is effectively subsidizing low-wage employers by failing to establish a livable minimum wage, forcing New York City residents to rely on public benefits to get by.
The city's current hourly minimum wage is $16.50—nowhere close to a living wage.
Mamdani's opponents in the mayoral race, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, voiced opposition to Mamdani's plan, with Sliwa calling it a "fantasy" and Cuomo rejecting the proposed $30 minimum as "too high" and "another tax on corporations."
But in arguing against a $30 wage floor, Cuomo appeared to undercut the narrative that Mamdani's proposal is unrealistic, pointing out that critics said New York state was "crazy" to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2018, when Cuomo was governor.
Polling released earlier this month found that 72% of likely New York City voters support incrementally raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that if a $30 minimum wage is not enacted, more than a third of New York City workers will earn less than $30 an hour in 2030.
"Discussions of a $30 minimum wage in New York City are not superfluous—they reflect the very real needs of working people throughout the city,' EPI's Sebastian Martinez Hickey wrote in August.
Cuomo supports raising New York City's minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2027—which aligns with the first phase of Mamdani's proposal.
Saru Jayaraman, president of the advocacy organization One Fair Wage and director of the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center, applauded Mamdani for standing by his proposal during Wednesday's debate.
"Assemblymember Mamdani is showing the kind of courage and clarity working families have been waiting for," said Jayaraman. "His call for a $30 living wage is not a fantasy—it's the most direct and far-reaching solution to the affordability crisis facing millions of New Yorkers."
"The response has been extraordinary," Jayaraman added. "Workers across all five boroughs are organizing, knocking doors, and building the kind of grassroots energy that creates real mandates for change. As the cost of living continues to rise, voters are ready to elect leaders who will deliver a real living wage, which in New York means at least $30 an hour.”
