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New York City’s city council is considering a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $30 – a measure that newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed on to on the campaign trail – which has caused confusion among business people.
The proposal from New York Assembly Member Sandy Nurse, a Democrat from Brooklyn, would require employers to pay workers $25 an hour if those employers provide qualifying benefits and $30 an hour if they don’t. The current $17 minimum wage will increase in phases to $30 an hour by 2030 for businesses with 500+ employees and $29 by 2032 for small businesses.
Santiago Vidal Calvo, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital that the new law will have “unintended consequences” and “strains the economy for everyone who needs a minimum wage to survive.”
“You don’t make an affordable place by making people pay more. That’s not directly related to the best way,” Calvo explained. “If you have people with higher incomes, then prices are probably going to go up, so my question to a lot of those people is, okay, you’re earning more, but if prices go up by the same amount, are you actually making things more affordable?”
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference at Deno’s Wonder Wheel at Coney Island in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn, New York City, on Feb. 15, 2026. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Calvo continued, “That’s one of the mistakes a lot of people who don’t know about economics fall into. So a lot of these champagne socialists go and believe that raising the minimum wage will solve everybody’s problems, because people will earn more and prices will stay the same. That’s Econ 101. That’s not going to happen. That is why many socialist countries have failed around the world.”
The law is consistent with Mamdani’s prominent campaign promise, which promoted the “$30 by ’30” minimum wage message.
“In the richest city in the world, making minimum wage should not mean living in poverty,” Mamdani wrote in X last year. “As Mayor, I will work with the City Council to raise the minimum wage to $30/hour by 2030. When working people have more money in their pockets, the entire economy improves.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment on whether he intends to sign the bill if it reaches his desk, but did not receive a response.
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While many supporters of raising the minimum wage argue that the cost of living in New York City makes it nearly impossible to live comfortably, business owners warn that the increase will force job cuts at businesses that can’t absorb the wage increases, The Wall Street Journal reported. report.
In other states across the country, minimum wage laws have had a negative impact on low-wage workers, including in Los Angeles. Fox News Digital reported earlier this year the hotel industry is already laying off workers due to the $30 minimum wage law that just went into effect.
Calvo told Fox News Digital that workers in certain industries, such as fast food and health care would be “totally wiped out” by the $30 minimum wage and that “young and low-wage workers” would be “hurt the most.”
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The sun is setting in the sky over midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building in New York City. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
“We’re going to see a large portion of the workforce disappear quickly from the city and I think people underestimate how much certain sectors will suffer compared to others,” Calvo said.
Calvo explained the importance of the Kaitz index, an economic index used to measure that the minimum wage should be compared to the economy and that most economists agree that the value should be between 0.4 and 0.55.
“This proposal is likely to put that Kaitz index at 1.1, which means, on many levels, if not a major intervention, a major economic mistake,” said Calvo.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
