ALBANY COUNTY — The Albany County Legislature will consider a bill that would raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 for all county employees — at least in theory.

While a press release from the legislature supposed that the bill would affect the earnings of “the 63 people [on] our payroll who do not earn a living wage” — the current minimum wage is $12.50 — the county executive’s spokeswoman, Mary Rozak, told The Enterprise that the actual number of employees affected would be 43, because some are paid according to union contracts, which can’t be leapfrogged. 

The total cost to the county this year, if the bill passes, would be $150,098, Rozak said.

She went on to explain that the bill would nevertheless have a “ripple effect” on those union wages down the line, as well as non-union wages that are already around the $15 mark and would need to be adjusted to reflect the higher-level skills of those employees relative to those earning $12.50 an hour.

“We want to be fair to everyone,” Rozak said, “and yet you have to take a look at what the impact will be financially. Because it won’t just be those 43 [employees]: it’ll be those union contracts that are negotiated, and as those contracts are negotiated, those people in other job levels that are close to that 15 already will say …. ‘Well we had a certain skill-set and that’s why we were getting a higher rate of pay.’”

Rozak said that County Executive Daniel McCoy is “not against it. He just wants to look at it with a clear understanding … that we’re not just talking about ‘this’ number of people and ‘that’ amount of dollars.”

Enforced by 2016 legislation, New York State has already begun raising the minimum wage with the goal of reaching $15 per hour, but in all regions above Westchester, the rate is still $12.50 and will only be increased incrementally “[as] determined by the Director of the Division of Budget, based on economic indices, including the Consumer Price Index,” with no established end-date, according a state webpage dedicated to the increase.

Since 2016, the minimum hourly wage for upstaters has increased by 70 cents annually. New York City has already reached a $15 minimum wage, and Long Island and Westchester County will be paying that rate by the end of this year.