Raising the Floor, a new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) focuses on the importance of prevailing wage standards for building service workers—including 32BJ members– as a practical means for New York City to promote greater economic opportunities and influence outcomes in the job market.
“This report shows that prevailing wage standards are good for workers and good for New York City,” said 32BJ President Hector Figueroa. “Building service workers are overwhelmingly people of color and residents of lower-income communities. If we want to fight inequality, these standards are an important tool to end the “tale of two cities” and provide a path to the middle class for tens of thousands of working people.”
Building service workers are overwhelmingly persons of color and well over half are immigrants. This report documents the vital role that prevailing wage standards for building service workers plays in contributing to the economic well-being of the neighborhoods where most building service workers reside.
Wage standards are critical in ensuring that workers are adequately paid, and prevailing wage standards are a key means to ensure that labor provides a path into the middle class. FPI reports have long documented the growth in income inequality in New York City, and the effects of low-wages on limiting opportunities for upward mobility and for achieving economic security.
