By GREGORY ZELLER // The New Year brings new minimum wages across New York State, including a $15-per-hour top tier that bests any state-sanctioned minimum wage in the country. Not every minimum-wage New Yorker will earn that premier paycheck, thanks to Albany’s sliding-scale approach to wage hikes, a wonder wheel of wages that, as of 2019, extends that $15 rate to employees of small firms (10 employees or fewer) in New York City. Big NYC…
By GREGORY ZELLER // The state university system’s clean-energy workforce-development efforts have received an eight-digit shot in the arm. A $15 million state investment will bolster SUNY’s clean-energy workforce and training programs, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, with $6 million heading to specific campus-based efforts – including several on Long Island – and an additional $9 million earmarked for colleges and universities planning apprenticeships and internships with industry partners. The funding is part of…
By GREGORY ZELLER // A chunky state investment will focus the State University of New York system on the specific needs of employers in cutting-edge fields, part of Albany’s plan to help train New York’s 21st century workforce. The state will sink $3 million into programs that put together SUNY, the NYS Department of Labor and statewide employers – specifically those in the healthcare and advanced-manufacturing industries – to create registered apprenticeships “that directly answer…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Holy old school! In a digital era decidedly defined by screens large and small, a forward-thinking entrepreneur is turning back the clock by inviting customers to turn actual pages. At a minimum, un-caped crusader Joshua Darbee is turning heads at Red Shirt Comics, a relative newcomer that’s already feeling right at home in downtown Port Jefferson. Since opening in May, the friendly neighborhood industrialist has made plenty of fans, attracted precisely…