City holds off on release of wage data

| The New Mexican

11/20/2008 - 11/21/08

The city won't release the exact amount of a scheduled increase in Santa Fe's mandated minimum wage at least until Monday.

That's due to the fact that some city councilors want to hold hearings on the wage issue and because there is a lot of "misinformation" regarding the planned cost-of-living adjustment to the current $9.50 minimum wage, city spokeswoman Laura Banish said Thursday. "We don't want to make this any more confusing than it already is," Banish said.

She earlier had said the city expects the wage to rise by about 5 percent to almost $10 an hour on Jan. 1.

The city last year put off a scheduled hike to $10.50 after working out a deal with business owners and the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce that linked annual adjustments to the Consumer Price Index and expanded the ordinance to include smaller businesses.

Simon Brackley, president of the chamber, has asked the city to delay the scheduled increase until the national economy improves. "With higher electric and water rate increases already in effect, we are concerned about job loss if there's a wage increase," he said. "It's very important to keep Santa Feans employed and working."

Some city councilors have said they don't want to delay the wage increase.

City Councilor Ronald Trujillo said at an economic forum this week that basing the mandated minimum wage on the Consumer Price Index "is something we voted on. I can't go back on the vote."

Carol Oppenheimer of the Living Wage Network, which took the lead in fighting for passage of the ordinance, said holding off on adjusting the local wage floor would be "a big mistake" because it would hurt workers hardest hit by the current recession. "All we're asking is that workers keep up with inflation," she said.

Santa Fe's wage ordinance, adopted in 2002, already provides for one of the country's highest minimum wage requirements for private sector employers.

The statewide minimum wage on Jan. 1 is scheduled to rise to $7.50 an hour from the current $6.50 an hour.