Senate Democrats are renewing their efforts to push for an increasing in the state’s minimum wage, releasing a 19-page study that seeks to refute claims a raise would equal job losses.

The report is heavy with charts and graphs explaining the lack of real-wage growth in New York state over the years, along with job losses in New York.

For the minority conference, the main takeaway from the report is this: Jobs won’t be lost if the state’s $7.25 minimum wage is increase and business groups are not “monolithically opposed” to the move.

“Today’s report expands on what the Senate Democratic Conference has consistently said over the past legislative session. Our state needs a higher minimum wage and our economy will improve once New Yorkers are better compensated for their hard work,” Minority Leader John Sampson said in a statement.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had in January pushed a bill that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 and tie future increases to the rate of inflation.

But the bill stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate after the conference leadership said it would be a “job killer.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has backed previous minimum wage increases, did not push for Republicans in the Senate on the issue at all, saying such an effort would be more difficult than the legalization of same-sex marriage.

That argument, though, is undercut by the lawmakers who have said privately they were waiting to see what position the governor was going to take and may have supported a Cuomo-backed bill.

The wage debate is now moving into election mode and Silver clearly thinks he has a winning issue to expand his huge majority in the state Assembly.

Republican candidates running in key races, including Republicans Bob Cohen and Eric Ulrich, have sought to cut the issue off at the pass by saying they would vote yes on a certain aspects of a minimum wage increase.

New York’s 30 Years War – Minimum Wage

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