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The “preemption” provision would not apply to local governments that
had set their minimum wages higher than the state’s by Jan. 1, 2007, such as Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The minimum wage in Santa Fe is $9.50 an hour for
businesses with at least 25 employees. The City Council will vote this year
on whether to increase the rate to $10.50 per hour in 2008.
Sen. John Arthur Smith of Deming, one of two Democrats who voted
against the bill, said he would have preferred that legislators had worked
out a minimum-wage increase last year “rather than having a Santa Fe minimum wage
virtually dictated to us throughout the state of New Mexico.”
Minimum-wage proposals died in the last session when lawmakers failed
to work out their differences before adjourning.
The Senate-approved bill would raise New Mexico’s minimum wage of
$5.15 an hour— the same as the federal pay floor — to $6.50 next year and
$7.50 in January 2009. Agricultural and dairy workers would be exempted from
the new minimum.
Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano, a Silver
City Democrat who sponsored the bill, said he recognized many senators faced
a difficult decision in voting on the measure.
“It kept me awake lots of nights,” he said.
All 18 Republican senators voted against the bill. Sen. H. Diane
Snyder, R-Albuquerque, said Democrats had misled Republicans about the
compromise reached on the measure. “One thing that was particularly important
to us was the preemption,” she said.
But Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña
Ana, predicted the minimumwage hike would be
popular with workers.
“I think that the people of New Mexico are going to be very
happy with the state Legislature today,” she said.
The measure contrasted with a competing bill that was sponsored by
House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé.
That proposal would have implemented the $7.50 hourly minimum wage a year
earlier and included automatic annual inflation adjustments and no preemption
provision.
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