20% of New Mexico's workers are getting a raise
And New Mexico raises its state minimum wages again, this time to $7.50 by January 2009:
The new law will not impact the higher wages already in place in Santa Fe ($9.50) that could be raised to $10.50 next year, but it will prevent other communities in NM from raising their minimum wages above the state floor until at least 2010.
"The Congress goes ahead and gives themselves pay raises, but for 10 years they have not increased the minimum wage, and we are not waiting," [NM Governer Bill] Richardson said at a news conference.
Victor Montoya, a grocery store owner in Anthony, applauded the new law.
"It costs $4 for a gallon of milk, $3 (per-gallon) for gas — how can people survive if everything else is going up?" he said. "It's a progressive bill for New Mexico."
The new law will not impact the higher wages already in place in Santa Fe ($9.50) that could be raised to $10.50 next year, but it will prevent other communities in NM from raising their minimum wages above the state floor until at least 2010.
posted by Jill Williams at
6:44 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting way to limit the minimum wage by raising it. Still, it's good that the state raised it since towns and cities (other than Santa Fe) might not have done so themselves.
Also, nice to see a small business owner happy about the increase.
Albuquerque should also get credit for raising its minimum wage. I didn't mention it because its wages won't be affected by the state-wide raise; Albuquerque's min wage is also scheduled to go up to 7.50 in 2009.
It is nice, but not surprising, to see a small business owner happy about the increase. Since I've been talking with folks about the campaign, I've run into a surprising number of small business owners who are supportive of minimum wage hikes, even to the $9.36 figure. In fact, I've spoken with many more small business owners who are supportive than not (but that may just be a function of a skewed sample).
I was more interested to see that the newspaper chose to quote a small business owner who was happy about the increase. In my own reading over articles written around the country about various efforts to raise the minimum wage, I've been interested to see the different politics reflected just in reporter choices. Just this morning I was observing that the news stories in states like Texas and West Virginia tend to reflect the opinion (stated as fact) that min wage hikes are bad for business and lead to job loss. In states like New Mexico and California, the articles I've read (as googled) tend to reflect the idea (opinion or fact, I'm not sure) that raising the minimum wage improves the economy. Not a statistically significant sample or observation, perhaps, but interesting. It will be interesting to see how the N&R and other local media outlets frame this campaign.
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