Minimum wage refers to the lowest remuneration employers must pay workers for work undertaken in a certain period of time, which may be hourly, weekly, monthly, etc. Arguments for and against minimum wage center on it's ability to reduce poverty and inequality and increase efficiency and standard of living.

The New York State and NYC minimum wage is presently determined by the federal minimum. In December 2013, this wage was raised from $7.25 to $8. However, the state minimum wage is set to increase between 2014 and 2016, up to $9.00 per hour in 2016. Recent inflation combined with the high cost of living in New York City threatens to render minimum wage workers in New York City relatively poorer than those in other parts of the nation. In this section, we compare NYC minimum wage life to minimum wage life in other cities. For the purposes of this section, the minimum wage was compared at the old rate of $7.25. The new minimum wages across the chosen cities did not change their relative order or ranking in the results.

The 6 cities chosen from among those selected by the NYC Comptroller in it's 2013 report were: New York City, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, San Franciso and Chicago. We chose to stick with these cities because of their relative size and population and importance in the national economy. The "nominal" minimum wage is the minimum wage unadjusted for extraneous factors such as cost of living, inflation and so on.

The ACCRA/COLI Cost of Living is a measure of living cost differences among urban areas in the United States compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research. The index was used to compare living cost across cities by incorporating local differences in the prices of housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, etc. As per the report, New York City prices for all of these items are roughly 20 -30 % higher than the national average and, twice or thrice the national average for housing costs (almost five times the national average in Manhattan). The “effective” minimum wage was calculated by the Comptroller by adjusting the nominal minimum wage for the same.

Comparing across cities, NYC had the lowest effective minimum wage, at just $4, and Chicago the highest, at $9.

Where can you live the best life -with the lowest cost of living and highest standard of living-on minimum wage? The percentage difference between real and nominal wage) may be used as an indication of lowest cost of living. According to the BLS 2012 data, the average renter spends 34.5 percent of income before taxes on housing expenses. The Comptroller data shows us the number of hours of minimum wage it takes to meet rent in the city. Multiplying the same with nominal minimum wage gives us the rent. SF's is the highest, followed by NYC. Chicago has the lowest rent. However, NYC minimum wage workers have to work more hours than their SF counterparts to make rent.

A recent shift in the debate around minimum wage have to do with the related concepts of “poverty wage” and “living wage”. Minimum wage is the same for all workers in the state regardless of the number of dependents they have. However, a single youngster without any dependents would have a very different quality of life compared to, say, a single parent supporting three children. Given that both are earning the exact same amount, the former would be able to spend his entire income on himself or herself, while the latter would be stretching that amount to fit the needs of four people.

The given chart draws on New York City data from MIT's Poverty in America project's Living Wage Calculator. In public policy, living wage refers to a level of wages that permit a worker to meet basic needs, including but moving beyond mere sustenance (food, clothing, shelter). This includes food, utilities, transport, health care, recreation, education, childcare, retirement savings, and often, insurance, legal fees, and taking care of a sick or elderly dependent. The “poverty wage” in this case is the minimum threshold for a minimum wage worker to not qualify as “poor”. The poverty rate is typically quoted as gross annual income, was converted it to an hourly wage for the sake of comparison.

Both poverty wage and (nominal) minimum wage for all permutations and combinations of workers and their dependents, have been deemed less than the living wage. However, what's most shocking, and very telling, is that the poverty wage in New York City, even for just one adult with no dependents, is higher than the effective minimum wage for any minimum wage worker. This means that in effective minimum wage terms, any minimum wage worker is in fact, poor. Factor in dependents, and this poverty is exacerbated to an even greater scale. Moreover, the effective minimum wage is less than half the living wage.

Phil Andrews is the director of the Retail Organizing Project at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), a labor union in the United States at the forefront of the living wage movement in NYC. He sees the increase in minimum wage as a positive sign. “We see the political winds to be in favor of living wage and increasing minimum wage,” he says “Minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living. You can't support yourself or rely on government assistance. It's not right. Corporations are making profits, so why shouldn't people who work so many hours a week be able to stand on their own feet?”