This week the city council voted to accept the petition signatures for a proposal to increase the wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017. Recent economic studies indicate a higher minimum wage could be a positive step for the city.
When the federal government introduced the minimum wage, it was not indexed for inflation – so every time the cost of living has increased, the minimum wage has lost value, buying less and less.
And minimum wage increases from Congress have not kept up.
According to a Century Foundation study using Department of Labor statistics the 1968 minimum wage was equivalent to $10.50 in today’s dollars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OloAp3B5j3Y
Sarah Nolan is the Executive Director of New Mexico Communities in Action and Fait or Café. The group is campaigning to increase the Las Cruces minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017 lower than the Century Foundation’s inflation adjusted figure.
Nolan says it would help many workers struggling to make ends meet.
“Our goal is not just to give people a raise – our job is to get them out of poverty “ she says.
City Councilor Miguel Silva says 10.10 an hour is unreasonably high and would inflate business operating costs to the point that many low wage workers could lose their hours or even their jobs, especially if they work for local businesses.
“You start seeing small businesses that have to close their doors or raise prices large businesses large big box businesses they can weather the storm it is the smaller mom and pop businesses that are going to struggle if we raise it too high too quickly ‘ he says.
Silva co-sponsored the recently approved Las Cruces minimum wage increase to $8.50 by 2016. Like the Café proposal it pins future wage increases to the cost of living.
He says the increase to $8.50 is one the city’s economy can handle.
But Sarah Nolan says many Las Crucens already working for $8.50 or more are still going without basic necessities and living below the poverty line.
“My mum was a single parent living off, working with food stamps and also working part time and going to school, we need all of those things to get ahead and raising the minimum wage I know what it is like too be part of a family that is living pay check to pay check pinching every penny” she says.
The minimum wage has become a polarizing issue in Las Cruces and across the nation pitting the well being and interests of low wage workers against those of employers and business owners.
But data released by the Department of Labor indicates there could be common ground. It shows the 13 states that have raised the minimum wage have actually seen more job growth than those that did not.
Silva says the issue is far more complicated…and cost of living is an important factor.
“Seattle for example, look at the business, or San Francisco you have got Microsoft, you have got Amazon you have some top notch companies in that area. If you look at Las Cruces what is the major employer in Las Cruces? Walmart” he says.
The City of Las Cruces lists its top three employers as New Mexico State University, White Sands Missile Range and Las Cruces Public Schools. No retail business is in the top eight employers, in fact Memorial Medical Center is the only private employer in the top eight.
City Commissioner Nathan Small says the long term benefits of raising the minimum wage cuts across the entire economy he says higher minimum wages would empower people to create their own opportunities.
“That can really come to mean the difference between someone attending school and someone having to stop their education, limit their opportunity because they simply don’t have enough to pay the bills or to care for members of their family” he says.
A recent study released by rating agency Standard and Poors cited the rising levels of income inequality as a drag on economic growth in the United States.
The report says income inequality has been linked to an uncompetitive workforce. It also says inequality discourages investment and hiring.
In fact, it’s part of the reason S&P has lowered its U.S. growth projection from 2.8 percent to 2.5 percent over the next decade.
