As widely reported (including here and here), a bill will be introduced today in the New York Assembly to raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50, beginning next year. Specifics of the proposed increase are not yet available. This push comes as no surprise to students of the state’s minimum wage, which has historically outpaced the federal minimum but has remained flat with federal law at $7.25 since the national minimum wage reached that level in July, 2009.