Santa Fe's local minimum wage of $9.85 is almost certainly going to remain unchanged in 2010, said the city official in charge of determining whether an adjustment is required annually.

A city ordinance links the so-called "living wage" to changes in a government measure of price inflation.

"Tentatively, we're saying it's not going up next year," said Sebastian Gurulé, director of the city of Santa Fe's Constituent Services Division. "The trends in the Consumer Price Index through October showed a negative number. It was down 8 percent."

Gurulé said he released tentative information about the wage requirement because so many business people preparing budgets for 2010 had been calling his office about the minimum wage.

The ordinance requires city officials to annually determine whether the rate should be adjusted based on any increases in the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.

Last January, the city's minimum wage — which is among the country's highest — rose to $9.85 from $9.50 in 2008.

The city attorney has said that the municipal law doesn't provide for any rollback in the minimum wage even if CPI data does decline.

Gurulé said his estimation of next year's wage is based on CPI information through the month of October. A final determination of the wage will be available in mid-January, after 2009 statistical data is complete.

But given economic conditions, Gurulé said, it is unlikely there will be an increase in the wage for next year.

Santa Fe's minimum wage was enacted by the City Council in 2003.

Under an earlier version of the municipal wage law, the hourly minimum was scheduled to rise to $10.50 as of Jan. 1, 2008. But late in 2007, city councilors agreed to hold the minimum at $9.50 through 2008 in exchange for an expansion of the ordinance to apply to employers of any size. Previously it applied only to those with 25 or more employees.

Earlier this year, after the price index increase for 2008 had been calculated, the minimum wage was set at $9.85.