Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – New Mexico’s minimum wage is set to jump to $12 per hour starting in January – up from $11.50 per hour currently – under the final step-up mandated by a 2019 law that gradually phased in a higher wage level for all state workers.
But many businesses have already been paying higher wages in an attempt to attract employees in a labor market upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, complicating the debate over whether an additional minimum wage hike should be approved.
“We’ve already surpassed the minimum wage in the market,” said Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, a small-business owner who pointed out many fast-food restaurants are advertising starting pay rates of $16 or $17 per hour for new hires.
“They can try to raise it (again), but I don’t think it will make a difference,” Muñoz added.
The 2019 bill that has increased New Mexico’s minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $12 per hour, as of next month, was one of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s top initiatives and represented the state’s first minimum wage increase in more than a decade.
While the law gradually raised the minimum wage for most employees, it allows for a lower training wage – $8.50 an hour – for high school-age workers, and maintains a lower wage for tipped employees if they collect enough tips to reach at least the regular minimum wage.
The lower minimum wage for tipped employees will increase to $3 per hour on Jan. 1 – up from $2.80 an hour currently.
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