Copyright 2023 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – New Mexico’s minimum wage just increased to $12 an hour at the start of this year, but two state lawmakers have already proposed legislation calling for future increases.
One of the bills filed this week would boost the minimum wage to $16 per hour starting in 2024, while also establishing an indexing system that would mean yearly minimum wage increases tied to inflation every year starting in 2025.
That proposal, House Bill 25, is sponsored by Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, who said Wednesday it’s based on New Mexico cost-of-living data and aimed at updating the minimum wage amid a labor market that’s changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Workers really feel, rightfully so in my opinion, that they need to be paid at a level where they can meet their minimum necessities,” Chandler told the Journal.
The other bill, House Bill 28, sponsored by Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, D-Albuquerque, would simply require annual increases tied to inflation. Those increases would then take effect in July every year.
“Indexing our state minimum wage law is a win-win situation for both our workers and our businesses,” Garcia said in a statement. “Annual increases enhance worker morale and increase a worker’s buying power.”
“As for businesses, it is a timely barometer of acknowledging the annual productivity value of workers and eliminates the sometimes unmanageable wage spikes that come around every 10 years,” he added.
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