The blizzard in New York is turning out to be a bigger problem than expected. Still, despite this winter’s harshness, emergency snow shovelers are in short supply, so much so that Mayor Zohran Mamdani has increased the pay by more than 30 percent, raising the previous $19/hour rate to now $30/hour. Apparently, not many people showed up for the previous job, leading to further criticism of New York‘s mayor.
Mamdani himself announced the higher emergency job pay in a press conference on February 23. According to the New York Mayor, there were hundreds of snow shovelers on the job already, and many of them are hard at work, around “1,800 New Yorkers per shift.” Mamdani did add that his administration still “increased pay to $30 per hour,” supposedly due to the “historic nature of this blizzard.” The previous pay was reportedly around $19 per hour.
As the announcement was recent, it’s not yet clear whether the pay increase has contributed to more emergency snow shovelers. Earlier, the New York Post reported that the previous rate “failed to attract” any shovelers for hours in certain sites, while some of the more active sites had only 35 shovelers. A city worker even claims, “I haven’t seen anybody sign up yet today. No, no one,” during an interview on Sunday.
Granted, the snowfall was unprecedented, as certain parts of the city got hit with around 28 inches of snow, much higher than the usual average. The situation is similar for other US states and cities, with some independent snow shovelers supposedly making quite a bit of cash on the side because of the blizzards.
The New York Mayor Can’t Catch a Break
Despite the progress report in the recent press conference, there was still no shortage of critics voicing out their complaints against Mamdami, though it’s not clear if they’re all from New York. One of the common tirades is how the emergency snow shoveler job supposedly has a “strict” requirement of two forms of ID to get paid.
“Make sure you have 2 forms of ID to shovel snow ❄️ 😆😅,” mocks a commenter on Facebook, with another echoing the sentiment, “How you gonna make shoveling snow more difficult than voting? 😂😂😂”, but such mockeries have also drawn ridicule from other people. Hence, one commenter even replied, “Voter ID crowd discovering what it takes to get a job.”
Meanwhile, people on the right side of the political spectrum appear to be pointing out how no one wanted the Mamdani administration’s job offer, which required them to raise wages. “The problem is, the people who voted for him expected FREE handouts. They didn’t think they’d be asked to work for them by shoveling,” assumes an X user. Another questions the effect of the pay increase, “30/hr and still no takers? Guess even snow has standards.”
