Business Group Backs Raise in New York Minimum Wage
By MICHAEL COOPER

ALBANY, July 14 - Advocates of raising the state's minimum wage won support from a powerful, if unexpected, quarter on Wednesday when the Partnership for New York City, one of the city's leading business groups, urged the State Senate to pass a bill raising the minimum wage to $7.10 an hour from $5.15.

Until now, the calls for a higher minimum wage have largely come from labor unions, Democrats, the Roman Catholic Church and the Working Families Party. Several business groups have come out against a higher minimum wage, arguing that it would drive up employers' expenses and could cost the state jobs.

But the Partnership for New York City, an influential group of business leaders that was founded by David Rockefeller, has now decided to support a higher minimum wage. In a letter to Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, the group noted that at the current minimum wage, a full-time worker earns only $10,712 a year, which is below the federal poverty level.

"Our decision is based on the fact that New York's competitive position in the world economy is driven, more than anything else, by the outstanding quality of our labor force,'' Kathryn S. Wylde, the president and chief executive officer of the partnership, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.