Editorial, 10/20/2006 - 'Living wage' movement could be spreading

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By THE NEW MEXICAN
October 20, 2006

Along with San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Santa Fe has led the nation as a "living wage" city. This noble experiment seems, for the most part, to be working out, even when hourly pay moved from $8.50 to $9.50. At $10.50, where it might go at the beginning of 2008, it might yet prove to be the back-breaking straw that forces folks out of business, or out of town, so the City Council must proceed with great caution. All the same, our community, with its heart-breaking living costs, did well to take the initiative it did.

Since Santa Fe's ordinance, more than 100 local governments have stood up for the working poor.

Under our city's ordinance, many businesspeople have learned what their more progressive colleagues already knew: Higher wages allow employers to be more selective about whom they hire. Better-run businesses often result. And higher-paid workers have more to spend, providing something of a "trickle-up" effect on the local economy.

Few politico-economic experts might have called for the big boosts Santa Fe put on the national $5.15-an-hour minimum wage. And for various reasons, supposedly carefully considered, the federal standard has rarely been in terms of even dollars and half-dollars.

The New Mexico Legislature so far has resisted House Speaker Ben Luján's pitch for a $7.50 minimum. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed an $8 minimum into law. In Washington, meanwhile, Congress isn't even close to budging from $5.15, which has been in place for nine years.

But on Election Day, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Ohio will confront ballot measures to increase the minimum wage.

The ballot initiatives are a combination of grassroots and Big Labor organizing efforts; a sign that champions of the working people still have a place in these days when transnational businesses have severely weakened unions in the private sector, and have diminished their lobbying power.

Last month, Mayor David Coss went out to Chicago to testify in favor of a higher minimum wage. The city's aldermen approved it -- but the mayor vetoed the bill, after telling Coss in no uncertain terms to butt out.

How will the move for a higher wage floor fare around the country? We haven't a guess as to the electoral outcome. But public awareness of the need for decent pay is growing -- and Santa Fe has played a big part in the process.