Las Cruces City Council approves increasing minimum wage to $10.10 an hour

Sept. 8, 2014 Update:

Las Cruces City Council voted Monday to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by Jan. 2017.

But some fear that decision will not hold up.

Supporters of raising the minimum wage are celebrating while preparing to continue to fight to make sure Monday’s vote is carried out.

It was just months ago when the same City Council voted to raise the minimum wage to $8.50 by Jan. 2016.

On Monday, some councilors were confused as to which minimum wage law will take effect.

While most, including the mayor and the city attorney, said that “reconciliation” must happen to decide the best course of action now that both pay increases have passed, one councilor said that Monday’s vote is now the law of the land.

“Today’s ordinance is the law of the land. It covers not only tipped workers, whose wages are risen 60 percent of what a non-tipped workers make, but it also schedules in the increase in January 2015,” Dist. 4 Councilor Nathan Small said.

There were nearly as many opponents at the council meeting as there were supporters.

Small business owners told councilors they’d have to close their doors should the increase pass like it did.

Sept. 7, 2014 story: The proposal was brought forth by the grassroots organization, New Mexico CAF, which stands for Comunidades en Accion y de Fe.

After months of debate by community and city leaders over the proposed amounts, Las Cruces City Council and Mayor Ken Miyagishimawill finally vote on the proposal.

It’s taken nearly a year of preparation for CAF to get the proposal through the lengthy ballot-initiative process. CAF’s Executive Director, Sarah Nolan says Las Cruces is behind on the times and desperately needs to catch up when it comes wages.

“What we don’t want is to become the low wage capital of New Mexico right now, we’re the largest city with the lowest minimum wage,” Nolan said.

Las Cruces’ current minimum wage is $7.50 an hour. In June, city council approved an increase in the current wage, to $8.00 an hour in July of 2015, and $8.50 in January of 2016.

CAF is proposing an even higher increase, it includes three separate bumps before reaching $10.10 in 2017.

There are two possibilities that will determine the proposal’s outcome:
city council will either approve it, if they vote against it, it will automatically be put on a ballot in November.

At the point, it’s up to voters to decide.

According to CAF, they anticipate that council will reject their proposal by a vote of 4-3. If so, they will ask council to allow a combined and concurrent election on November 4th, so that both county and city residents can vote during the general election.

The proposal will be voted on Monday, September 8th, 2014 during a special meeting.