Mayor de Blasio knows what the city’s minimum wage workers earn — thanks to a cheat sheet prepared for him before a press conference Wednesday.
Two days after his Republican mayoral opponent Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis fumbled on the question — getting the wage wrong and mistakenly saying it applied to businesses of all sizes in a sit-down with The News editorial board — Hizzoner’s staff apparently wanted to avoid a similar flap.
An aide to de Blasio was spotted writing out a chart outlining the minimum wage schedule by a Newsday reporter, who snapped a photo and tweeted it before the press conference in the parking lot of a Whole Foods in Gowanus kicked off.
When The News asked if he could name the minimum wage without consulting notes, a presumably well-prepped de Blasio didn’t look down and seemed to take a dig at Malliotakis’ assertion that there was not a different minimum wage for smaller businesses.
“Eleven dollars, unless you are a company of ten or fewer employees, in which case it is the very, very different number of $10.50,” he said.
Asked if he’d brought notes on the wage to the podium — where he sometimes consults handwritten or typed cards kept in a small binder — the mayor played coy.
“I study it all day long,” he said. “I’ve memorized the minimum wage chart all the time.”
Spokesman Eric Phillips said the mayor was simply coming prepared.
“Being mayor requires preparation. When you’re talking to 8.5 million people about important facts to their lives, there’s no shame in jotting down a few notes to make sure you get it right,” Phillips said.
The state’s minimum wage — voted on by the state legislature as part of the budget — is set to increase to $15 in New York City over several years. But the state set different wages for smaller businesses, who will have more time before they must pay $15 hourly.
After explaining her votes against previous minimum wage hikes, Malliotakis was asked the current minimum wage, and pegged it 50 cents too high at $11.50. After saying it had been detrimental to small shops in particular, she was asked whether there were different wages for different business sizes — and said no.
