Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein, who traveled to the White House this week to meet with President Obama and a host of state lawmakers from around the country, said he is hopeful for a bipartisan agreement on the minimum wage as well as paid family leave.
Klein was at the White House for the conference of state legislators along with Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat.
“I’m very optimistic that we can get these things done,” he said after the conference on Wednesday. “We can do it in a bipartisan fashion like increasing the minimum wage, like making sure we have paid family leave. These things are extremely important.”
Klein and the five-member IDC played a key role when state lawmakers last agreed on a minimum wage increase. At the time, the IDC and the Senate Republicans shared power in a majority coalition when none of the conferences had a clear numeric advantage in the chamber.
Still, the IDC remains close with the GOP conference in the chamber and could provide needed votes for the latest minimum wage proposal to pass.
Liberals were dissatisfied with the minimum wage agreement, especially over what they saw as incentives for businesses to not hire older, low-wage workers.
Senate Republicans are heading into an election year with a thin majority, but are also facing the political headwinds of a proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to raise the minimum wage to $15, phased in over the next several years.
The current minimum wage of $8.75 is due to increase to $9 by the end of the year/