Last updated on July 27th, 2015 at 02:39 pm
New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS) President Jim Calvin was right on two predictions made about two weeks ago. He said the New York Wage Board was hurtling toward a $15 per hour recommendation and that it would involve convenience store workers.
Calvin described the wage board’s definition of fast food establishments as “far-reaching,” a category that would capture chain and franchise convenience stores.
“Obviously, the cost implications would be a major blow to many of our retail members,” he said.
NYACS representatives plan to meet with the state labor commissioner in order to show him how “illogical and impractical it would be to include convenience stores under the banner of fast food establishments.”
“Food service is a part of our business, not our primary business,” Calvin added. “In fact, it represents less than one-fifth of convenience store sales on average. Our valued employees are cross trained to prepare food and perform a variety of other unrelated functions inside the store—and are a separate and distinct class of workers from the group of employees we believe the wage board was created to examine.”
