Overview
Tompkins County has a higher cost of living than anywhere else in upstate New York, and its cost of living has increased disproportionately relative to wages in recent years. In spring and summer 2026, the Ithaca Co-Lab coordinated an effort to solicit testimony and present data analyses to help the Tompkins County Legislature decide whether to adopt a countywide minimum wage.
The core of this project was to convene all the stakeholders affected by minimum wage increases, including workers, business owners, members of the care economy and government agencies. Given the challenges of getting feedback from workers, and the desire for a deeper dive into specific business issues, the researchers also organized focus groups and solicited individual verbal and written testimony.
This report summarizes the testimony and presents data analyses and research literature to address the questions that arose during the discussions.
Key Findings
- There is broad agreement that the cost of living in Tompkins County is very high, and data analyses confirm that.
- Benefits of increasing the countywide minimum wage could include enabling thousands of local workers to afford basic necessities and have more free time.
- An increased countywide minimum wage could also reduce inequities and increase spending at local businesses.
- Downsides of increasing the county’s minimum wage could include job losses and price increases in some sectors, as well as workplace problems associated with work intensification and pay compression.
- Through data and research, the authors confirmed the rising cost of living relative to wages, found that the minimum wage can be a powerful tool to tackle poverty and identified the varied challenges employers face across sectors.
Recommendations
- Tompkins County should design a minimum wage policy that minimizes the downsides identified by stakeholders.
- Many stakeholders proposed carveouts for particular industries and occupations. However, these exceptions could skew the competitive playing field and reinforce historic inequities.
- Tompkins County must consider additional policies to address the downsides of a countywide minimum wage, especially regarding public-benefits cliffs, youth employment programs and care work.
- Tompkins County should look for ways to reduce the cost of living, in particular to reduce the cost of the two most expensive items – transportation and housing – which on average account for roughly half of household income.
Research Impact
Ithaca Co-Lab Director Ian Greer has been working with local stakeholders since 2018 to explore ways to bring up the wage floor in Ithaca and Tompkins County. This includes working with Rusty Weaver, director of research at the ILR School’s Buffalo Co-Lab, to calculate and publicize the local living wage.
In spring 2026, the Ithaca Co-Lab organized eight public convenings and six focus groups. It also canvassed opinions online and in the community about the possibility of a countywide minimum wage. The resulting report to the county presented this testimony alongside data analyses to help county legislators make an informed decision about the minimum wage proposal. The final report was presented to the community in August 2026 and to the legislature in September 2026.
AUTHORS:
Ian Greer, Cornell University’s ILR School Ithaca Co-Lab director; David Bateman, Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences associate professor; Adolfho Romero, Cornell University ILR School Ph.D. student; Wen Li Thian, Cornell University ILR School Ph.D. student; Matt Vidal, Loughborough University, London, Institute for International Management, reader in sociology and political economy
CONTACT:
Ian Greer
Director
icg2@cornell.edu
The Ithaca Co-Lab mobilizes students and research to tackle policy challenges in the local region. These include fighting unemployment, winning a living wage, overcoming disadvantage in the job market and organizing for worker voice in the workplace.