The results of the long-anticipated Tompkins County Minimum Wage Study are in.

One of its main findings is that the cost of living in the county is increasing more rapidly than the state minimum wage of $16.00 per hour.

“The current minimum wage does not cover the basics was something that in all the worker conversations we heard repeatedly,” said David Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and a co-author of the study.

It’s a result that many advocates have long emphasized, but this time it comes as part of a study meant to inform the debate around potential legislation that would see the county raise its local minimum wage beyond New York’s, which is $16.00 an hour in upstate.

The proposal has been discussed for years by county legislators and has been the subject of local organizing campaigns by labor advocates and groups such as the Tompkins County Workers Center.

However, officials have previously acknowledged that raising the minimum wage in Tompkins County would likely trigger a lawsuit, turning the county into a test case. 

Critics of the proposal have said it might hurt businesses more than it helps address the rising cost of living.

The county legislature gave final approval in July 2025 to spend $50,000 in July 2025 to explore the impacts of raising the minimum wage.

David Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and a co-author of a new study on raising the minimum wage in Tompkins County. Credit: Jacob Mroczek / The Ithaca Voice

Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) Co-Lab conducted the study. Researchers presented its findings to a crowd of about 50 people Thursday evening in the BorgWarner Community Room at the Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca.

For the Tompkins County Minimum Wage Study, researchers partnered with community organizations to interview stakeholders during public convenings, focus groups, recorded testimonies and written submissions beginning in late March 2026.

Researchers pointed to the results of the Tompkins County Living Wage, which was released in April.  It found that a single adult without children needs to earn $25.08 an hour to meet basic living expenses in Tompkins County. Researchers estimated that about 24,000 county workers — nearly half of all wage earners in the county including college students — make less than the living wage threshold.

Housing and transportation were cited as primary drivers of the high cost of living. Low-wage workers, local businesses and small nonprofits are among the most affected by the cost of living.

Ian Greer, of Cornell University’s ILR Ithaca Co-Lab and a co-author of the study, has been researching wages in Tompkins County since 2018. 

Greer said that Tompkins County has a higher income inequality than anywhere else in upstate New York.

“We’re even above average for the United States and we have extreme disparities by race in wages,” said Greer. 

Ian Greer, director of Cornell University’s ILR Ithaca Co-Lab and a co-author of a new study on raising the minimum wage in Tompkins County.
Credit: Jacob Mroczek / The Ithaca Voice

A higher percentage of Black and Hispanic workers in Tompkins County earn less than the $25.08 county living wage threshold. About 67% of Black workers and about 59% of Hispanic workers make less than the current living wage, compared to about 48% of white workers. 

About 1,000 workers above the age 65 are living below the living wage threshold. Of the low-wage earners, 37% are living in households below 200% of the poverty line.

“That’s about 7,400 workers,” Greer said. “So we know that work poverty is an issue here.”

The industries with the highest number of low-wage earners are accommodations and food service, followed by retail and agricultural jobs. 

The minimum wage study found that low-wage earners living below the poverty line would benefit even from small increases in the minimum wage. The broader potential benefits of a countywide minimum wage increase include making the county more livable, increasing quality of life, reducing inequality and improving spending power within the community. 

Some stakeholders surveyed in the minimum wage study were concerned that a countywide minimum wage increase would result in inflation, reduced economic activity, or could be detrimental to small businesses. 

Another concern was that a higher minimum wage might push low-wage workers over the threshold for receiving some public benefits as well the impact on employment numbers and benefits, especially in grants-funded jobs. 

Several Tompkins County legislators attending the Thursday convening spoke in support of legislation that would raise the minimum wage above $16.00. 

Tompkins County Legislator Iris Packman, a Democrat, supports raising the county’s minimum wage above the state’s limit. Credit: Jacob Mroczek / The Ithaca Voice

“These issues are really significant for many people in our county,” said county Legislator Iris Packman, a Democrat who represents District 3. 

“It has implications for affordability. We’ve seen that 60% of renters are cost-burdened, spending a third or more of their income on rent. And 36% of Tompkins County renters are spending more than half their income on rent,” Packman added.

The Minimum Wage Study will be presented to the Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee on Sept. 2 and to the full Legislature on Sept. 15. 

“I encourage my colleagues to really dig in and read it because I think the data helps give us some concrete suggestions about how to address some of these issues,” Packman said. “That way the workers could be paid a higher wage and not pass that on to the families that are already struggling.”