Andrew Cuomo, Wage Warrior

As establishment presidential candidates for both major parties limp out of New Hampshire after humbling defeats, future candidates in statehouses across America would be wise to follow the lead of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his laser focus on raising workers’ wages.

Heading into the South Carolina primary next week, one of the defining stories of the presidential race thus far has been the deep disaffection among the American public for the establishment candidates of both parties. Although pundits on both sides point to various reasons for this discontent, the crisis of wage stagnation for the average American worker is unmistakably a central part of their anger and frustration.

Since 1973, hourly wages for the vast majority of Americans have not kept pace with economy-wide productivity gains. In a study released last year, the Economic Policy Institute found that while “net productivity grew 72.2 percent between 1973-2014, inflation-adjusted hourly compensation of the median worker rose just 8.7 percent, or 0.20 percent annually, over this same period.”

Think about that for a minute: In what other walk of life would anyone look at those numbers and not think something is rotten in the state of Denmark?

Here in New York, business profits per worker have grown twice as fast as a typical worker’s wages since 2001, and when adjusted for inflation, the difference was even worse. Low-wage workers suffered a roughly 10 percent drop in real wages during this period.

As working families have been squeezed, Washington has failed to take action. Yet since Cuomo took office, the story in New York has been very different, as he has consistently, smartly and successfully fought to raise the wages for millions of New Yorkers.

Just three months into his first term, Cuomo took an innovative approach to raising wages and benefits for some of the lowest paid workers in our state – home care workers – in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. He did something I saw very few chief executives do in my 13 years working for the Hotel Trades Council: He used the power and leverage at his disposal, in this case using the budget process, to raise the wages for thousands of mostly women workers.

Cuomo also understands that a key component of creating new jobs is ensuring that those jobs come with decent wages and family-sustaining benefits. In 2013, when voters approved a ballot initiative to allow casino gaming in upstate cities, creating nearly 8,000 new jobs, it was Cuomo who made sure those jobs were a ticket to the middle class. The Supreme Court has spoken on this issue and essentially said that when a city or state has a proprietary interest in the future revenues of a project, it can use its powers to require that future revenues are not interrupted by any labor strife. By using that authority, which too few elected officials do, the governor ensured that the future workers at those casinos would be allowed to join a union, receive fair wages and have the security of pension, healthcare and dignity in the workplace.

As a result, at the Resorts World Casino in New York City, where workers are represented by the New York Hotel Trades Council, wages will rise from poverty-level to middle-class, increasing by an average rate of $9.76 per hour, and by the end of the five-year contract, the average worker will earn over $60,000 annually – a 180 percent average increase over what those workers were making before joining the union. Those are literally life-changing numbers for thousands of families.

After boosting wages for thousands of low-wage gaming industry workers, Cuomo set his sights on addressing the rampant inequality in our food-service and hospitality industries. The governor convened a Wage Board to raise the pay of nearly 230,000 tipped-wage workers to a level that is now among the top 10 in the nation.

Cuomo also took on the fast food industry, where CEOs are among the highest paid executives in the nation and workers overwhelmingly languish in poverty. The inequity was so severe that New York ranked first in the nation in public assistance spending on fast food workers, at a total cost to taxpayers of $700 million a year.

With the state Legislature unwilling to act, Cuomo took the lead, empaneling a Wage Board, which led to the approval of a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. This was a transformative moment that gave the national fast food movement its single biggest win ever, and will put significantly more money in the pockets of 300,000 workers and their families.

Even with these successes, there is still more work to be done. Cuomo has acknowledged as much by pledging to make New York the first state to raise the minimum wage to $15 for workers across all industries. If he is successful, he will once again transform the lives of millions of working families and pump billions of much needed economic stimulus into the New York economy and the pockets of consumers and workers.

The inspiration behind Cuomo’s innovation is simple but successful – use every tool at your disposal and be willing to risk real political capital in the fight to raise workers wages. It may take a while for voters to give credence to the notion that politicians can actually do anything about stagnant and falling wages, but Cuomo has shown the way as a Wage Warrior.

Neal Kwatra is a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and political director of the New York Hotel Trades Council.

Kwatra also advises the New York state Democratic Party, of which Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a member.