by Justin Gonzalez
Daily Lobo
The Santa Fe City Council took an unprecedented first step toward a $10.50 minimum wage within the city Thursday.
The controversial "living wage" ordinance, which passed by a 7-1 vote, means that starting Jan. 1, 2004, private sector employers in Santa Fe must pay employees a minimum of $8.50 per hour. The ordinance is intended to increase minimum wages to $9.50 per hour two years later and $10.50 per hour the following year.
"There are nearly 20,000 workers in Santa Fe County who, as of 2002, were earning between $5.15 and $10.50 an hour," said Robert Pollin, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
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"These workers constitute 28 percent of the working population in Santa Fe."
There are more than 90 living wage laws in effect around the country, but Santa Fe's law is the most aggressive, Pollin said. This will be the first living wage law in the country to affect nearly all middle to large private sector businesses within a city.
Opponents of the ordinance, primarily local business owners, argue that the living wage law will devastate socio-economic conditions in Santa Fe.
"These losses will cancel out some or all wage increases, leaving these 'beneficiaries' no better off than they were before the city council decided to 'help out,'" said Kristen Lopez Eastlick, director of policy analysis at the Employment Policies Institute in Washington, D.C.
She contends that it will cause high school drop-out and unemployment rates to increase; housing, child care and health benefits to decrease; and have no positive impact on poverty.
Santa Fe City Council member David Pfeffer cast the only vote against passing the ordinance.
"It's a good cause and a bad law," Pfeffer said.
Council members Patti Bushee and Carol Robertson-Lopez postponed voting for the living wage ordinance until some amendments were added. These included pushing back the implementation dates to conduct impact studies and changing the size parameters of affected businesses.
The ordinance originally applied to businesses with 10 or more employees, but was changed to apply to companies with at least 25 workers.
Hundreds of Santa Fe citizens turned out to participate in the public forum. Those who attended were allowed one minute to voice their opinions on the subject before the council moved to closed session for the vote. Council members labored over the proposed ordinance nearly seven hours before reaching the majority decision.
"We are the test case. Everybody will be talking about Santa Fe tomorrow," Bushee said.
