SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) – When Santa Fe‘s minimum wage rises to $10.29 an hour on March 1, the New Mexico capital will have the highest local wage requirement in the country, according to the National Employment Law Project.
Santa Fe, a high desert oasis where the well-heeled buy second homes and tourists flock for art galleries and world-class opera, will surpass San Francisco, which requires workers to be paid at least $10.24 an hour.
Santa Fe’s increase from $9.85 an hour stems from a city ordinance that ties wage requirements to a consumer price index for the western United States. As the new rate — announced this month by the city — approaches, city officials are celebrating, but business groups are bracing for what they say is another unfair hit.
“We think it has made a big difference for low-income people and for the value of work in Santa Fe,” Santa Fe Mayor David Coss told Reuters. “I think it should and could be repeated around the country.”
Coss said the city maintains the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 5 percent and that the ordinance has not hurt businesses. Since Santa Fe’s ordinance was passed, other cities and the state itself have followed suit. The city of Albuquerque and the state raised the minimum wage to $7.50 an hour, above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.