[caption id="attachment_142060" align="aligncenter" width="5148"] (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) 

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New York fast food workers are claiming victory in the so-called "Fight for $15."

The Fast Food Wage Board appointed by New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that they are recommending a minimum wage hike up to $15 an hour for fast food workers employed by chains with 30 or more stores nationwide, the Guardian reported.

Fast food workers in New York City will see this increase kick in first, jumping up to $15 an hour by December 2018. The rest of the state must be at that level by July 2021.

The board said NYC needed a faster increase in wages because those chains benefit from the influx of tourists year-round, according to the Guardian. 

Cuomo could not have been more pleased by the decision. He lauded the board for righting this "injustice."

“It is an injustice when you have a growing income inequality, [when] fewer and fewer Americans are becoming richer and richer and more Americans working harder and harder and getting left behind,” he said. “It is an injustice when working families in this country have gone backwards over the past 10 years when you add in inflation. It is a shame that in this nation with all our progress, one in five children live poverty. That is a shame.”

He also said that the rest of the country will likely follow their lead.

“When New York acts, the rest of the states follow. That is the New York way,” he said.

The board's decision does not require legislative approval. There will now be a 15-day comment period, after which the New York labor commissioner can adjust the recommendations before they become a law.