City of Ithaca Commits to Paying Its Workers a Living Wage!

(Ithaca) The Tompkins County Workers’ Center is pleased to announce that the City of Ithaca, through its Common Council, approved Mayor Svante Myrick’s 2013 Budget this past Wednesday evening. The Budget allocates the necessary funds, approximately $45,000 for the second half of the coming Fiscal Year, for the City to become a Certified Living Wage Employer in July of 2013.

Says Mayor Myrick: “This was an extremely difficult budget year that was full of difficult decisions. But even while cutting back on our spending, I felt it was necessary to invest in our lowest paid employees. I know what it’s like for a family to struggle to make ends meet while working 40 or more hours per week. To me, paying a Living Wage is a moral imperative”.

Solid Waste Facility Worker, Stanley McPherson, meeting with Ithaca City Mayor, Svante Myrick, several weeks ago to encourage him to work for a Living Wage for all City employees: as well as for employees at the County-owned Solid Waste facility.


The vast majority of the City’s employees were already making a Living Wage with healthy benefits. The additional funds cover those workers who are temporary and seasonal, but whom work beyond three months.

Adding the City of Ithaca, an employer of approximately 450 people, to our long list of Living Wage Employers (including Tompkins County and the Town of Ithaca, as governmental employers), we now will have 86 Certified Living Wage Employers, representing over 2,900 workers who are making a Living Wage.