LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Billboards located off Alameda and Amador, Highway 70 East, and on Missouri near Telshor are increasing awareness about the new law raising minimum wage in Las Cruces to $10.10 by 2017. The billboards ask members of the Las Cruces community to call the Mayor and City Council at (575) 541-2067 to thank them for the raise and also to ask them to keep the raise to $10.10.
The new law is effective January 1, 2015 and includes raises for tipped wage earners. The raise for 18,000 hardworking individuals and families in Las Cruces is effective January 1, 2015 and is phased-in over 3 years beginning at $8.40 in 2015 ($3.36 tipped wages), $9.20 in 2016 ($4.70 tipped wages), and $10.10 in 2017 ($6.06 tipped wages).
“Our purpose is to protect the raise to $10.10 for every hardworking single mother, devoted father, aspiring student, tipped wage earner, and family who deserve this raise,” explained Sarah Nolan, Executive Director of CAFe. “We are certain that if the ballot initiative would have been allowed to go for a vote on November 4th, thousands of Las Cruces voters would have voted in favor of their future raise to $10.10. We strongly believe that the weight of thousands of voters behind the new law would have made it impossible to water it down. If Mayor Miyagishima and the City Council would have allowed the vote to go to the people, then their only choice would have been to implement the law effective January 1st giving it a chance to benefit our community.”
Nolan added, “We do not support their actions planned at the next city council work session on Oct. 27th to ‘discuss’ the new law. Why are we moving back in time to ‘discuss’ the new law after all of our collective efforts to improve wages? The time for discussion is over. It’s time to enact the law and move forward.”