The Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park is no more, but the focus it brought to income inequality is having an impact in Albany and beyond.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, plans to introduce a bill on Monday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, a 17 percent increase. The bill also calls for the minimum wage to be adjusted each year for inflation.

Mr. Silver’s action follows similar steps by lawmakers across the country: Delaware recently passed a minimum wage increase, and raises are being considered in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey.

And Mr. Silver’s proposal comes just days after President Obama, in his State of the Union address, described the growing gap between the rich and the poor as the “defining issue of our time.”

The New York proposal, which Mr. Silver said would be his top legislative priority this year, will be subject to close scrutiny from Senate Republicans and business leaders, who say the measure could hurt job growth. But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a political independent with strong ties to the business community, has supported Mr. Silver’s call for an increase in the minimum wage.

“It is impossible to live in this city on $15,000 a year,” said Micah C. Lasher, Mr. Bloomberg’s director of state legislative affairs.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said that he is generally in favor of a minimum wage increase, but that he will have to see the speaker’s proposal before deciding whether to support it. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has enjoyed strong support from the business community, but has also been under pressure from the liberal wing of his party to demonstrate concern for the poor.

The state’s current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which is lower than that of 18 states and the District of Columbia, took effect three years ago as the result of a federal law. The State Legislature last approved a minimum wage increase eight years ago…..

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