Today the Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver introduced a bill to raise the New York State minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, a 17 percent increase. The bill also calls for the minimum wage to be adjusted each year for inflation. The RWDSU is an active part of a coalition to raise the minimum wage. Read more about why this legislation needs to be passed in the New York Times and the New York Daily News, read how it would improve the standards in the retail industry in Crain’s, and check out video from the press conference here and here, and read more from WBNG 12 Action News, WKBW Eyewitness News, WNYC’s “The Empire”, and a report in Capitol Confidential.