Las Cruces City Councilors decided in a work session yesterday to move forward with the public led initiative to increase minimum wage to 10.10 an hour by 2017.
There has been much debate on how Las Cruces City Council would move forward with two different minimum wage ordinances on the books. The first passed by the council in June created a minimum wage increase to 8.50 an hour by 2016. The second, a public led initiative passed in October to increase minimum wage to 10.10 an hour by 2017.
Councilor Nathan Small says it was finally agreed to go with the public led initiative.
“We stepped back from the brink and decided to move forward together,” Small said. “Respecting the citizen initiative that was passed into law for the city and has a three-year increase over time beginning at $8.40 in 2015, January 1, and ending in 2017 after that to be tied to the consumer price index.”
After a lengthy discussion of whether to amend the plans, scratch both and start over, or change the implementation date. Council Members decided to move forward with the plan as is. Councilor Gill Sorg says that discussion is important.
“We discussed, we talked it out,” Sorg said. “Hopefully everybody listened, and that’s the most important part, you have to listen to everybody, all sides. And you have to make your decision after everything you hear.”
The most common objection is that the increase was too big and too fast for local businesses to keep up with. Sorg doesn’t think that it will be that big of a problem.
“The number of businesses that are paying their employees under $8.40 is so, so small that it will not make much of a difference in our economy,” Sorg said. “There could be help for those few small businesses that are going to be caught that way. And have to raise their salaries or their wages rather.”
The Council says they will monitor how the first increase effects the community, and make changes to the ordinance if necessary.
“We can always look and see what is happening in the city,” Sorg said. “And see what is happening to our businesses, to our economic growth and to our economy as a whole. We can always do that, but I think that it is most important that this goes forward.”
Public comment was not allowed at the work session, but they made their opinion heard through cheering and booing different council members.
Councilor Small says it is always good to see the public involved, especially when they pushed for the initiative.
“Even though the public was not allowed to comment,” Small said. “We still saw hundreds of community members in the audience. And I think we got a sense of just how important not only the policy helping lift some of the poorest in our community and help give them a bit more opportunity, and enrich our own economy and community at the same time. But the processes that we have to respect when thousands of citizens work together on the policies that govern them.”
The council also agreed to create an amendment extending federal minimum wage exemptions to the city ordinance. Mayor Miyagishima says this is important to protect certain jobs.
“Some exemptions currently exist,” Miyagishima said. “I feel that people who are already used to that exemption they should continue to get that exemption regardless of the cities minimum wage ordinance.”
New Mexico Café led the initiative to increase minimum wage, and Director Sarah Nolan says that workers around the city can celebrate.
“Now in January, Las Cruces workers will be able to say, ‘Hey, I got a raise, I can plan for it, and there is a little more money in our pockets,’” Nolan said.
