City continutes to explore cost to raise contractor workers’ wages

The City of El Paso continues to debate raising the minimum wage for contracted city employees to $10.00 an hour.

The proposal was introduced by City Rep. Lily Limon, who has consistently raised concerns about low wages for people employed by contractors doing business with the City.

The City Representative asked city employees to come back with a list of all janitorial, lawn maintenance and security contracts the City currently has with private companies and determine how much the companies pay their employees working on city projects in February. But as of Monday, council reps say there still isn’t enough information to make a decision.

According to city officials, many of the companies pay their employees about $7.25 an hour.

She quickly faced strong opposition from City Representatives Cortney Niland and Michiel Noe who believe wages should be set by the free market, not government.

Noe said Limon’s plan would be bad for taxpayers. “We’re voluntarily, that is artificially, raising the price of a contract and saying ‘okay I’m not going to pay for it. The taxpayers are going to pay for this.’

Limon has long said it is hypocritical of the City to promote the idea that El Paso is no longer a low wage city while doing business with companies who pay employees low wages.

Council asked the city to come back with more information in time for the June budget process, when they hope to make a final decision.