Commentary: The City Council’s 7/11 minimum wage work session was mostly reasoned on all sides. Remember, other city level statistics from groups/agencies are also available. Special thanks to Sarah Silva, Angelica Rubio and Sara Melton for their hard work and with others stating/re-stating the good done - and the still abhorrent local problems. City Economic Development staff displayed a starting framework of major indicators with a positive outlook for the City - with more to come in later details. They should’ve also stated minimum wage increases for servers and front-of-the house staff. In Cruces, its just as important and to some as was said, perhaps more meaningful.
I do note a general point raised. Let’s make sure we compare apples to apples in all data when proceeding - whatever the numbers are. There are always holes. This is a complex monkey that drives economists and others nuts. As Councillor Sorg so well pointed out, corrective adjustments are needed to GRT for city and/or county changes where appropriate even as overall GRT increases.
The minimum wage raise is not a real factor in local happenings - wage increases are not the cause of most apparent retail cost increases as inferred by some speakers. We know this. The past use of El Paso comparability to Cruces by some critics also seems easy as median incomes are similar. They are NOT comparable; there are major differences in e.g, work force break-outs and economies generally.
CAFe and its volunteers brought the minimum wage raise issue forward for a democratic yes/no vote, even with the prior Council’s additional action still in the background. Thank you again Mr. Mayor, Council and staff for your continued followup. State and National issues may later also come into play. Stay tuned.