NEW YORK, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- New York City transit workers are calling for a raise, saying they can barely afford to live in one of the nation's most expensive cities.
As the 34,000-member Transport Workers Union edges closer to a strike, many workers are speaking out about the difficulty of living on $40,000 to $60,000 a year, The Washington Post reported.
Middle-class incomes in New York, according to the labor-funded Fiscal Policy Institute, have declined by 11.9 percent relative to inflation in the past 13 years. Inflation runs close to 5 percent in the city and housing prices have shot up 85 percent, the newspaper said.
Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority say the transport workers are lucky to have jobs with a generous, employer-paid pension and health benefits.
An analysis by the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-funded think tank, suggests that transit workers are too well paid and that the MTA should take a strike to restore fiscal order.
"They live in one of the most expensive cities in the country, but their wages are not substandard," said deputy research director Elizabeth Lynam. "They are fairly compensated ... and maybe too high."
