Friday, July 13, 2007
Everyone May
Get 'Living Wage'
Journal
Staff Report
Mayor David Coss and a solid majority of the City Council on Thursday proposed
changes to Santa Fe's "living wage" ordinance, extending the nation's
highest local minimum wage law to cover all employers in the city but backing
off from increasing the required wage level by $1 an hour next year.
"I'm very proud of both of these constituencies for
working together and coming up with a compromise," Coss said.
The changes represent a compromise among business
organizations, city councilors, union leaders and living wage advocates.
The amendments have the support of the Santa Fe Chamber of
Commerce, which was among business plaintiffs who previously mounted an
unsuccessful legal challenge to the living wage law. The proposal also has the
endorsement of the Santa Fe Lodgers Association, representing hotels, the local
restaurant association and the Santa Fe Business Alliance, representing smaller
locally owned businesses.
Al Lucero, owner of Maria's New Mexican Kitchen restaurant,
who has previously been quoted as expressing concerns about the living wage,
spoke in favor of the changes at a City Hall press conference. He said $9.50 an
hour is "not a living wage, it's a minimum wage."
"If you think you are going to live on $9.50, you are
nuts," Lucero said.
Under the proposed changes, the living wage ordinance would
apply to all employers in
But the city would drop plans to increase the local minimum
wage from the current $9.50 an hour to $10.50 an hour in January. The ordinance
originally called for the $10.50 rate to go into effect next year, but the
council agreed late in 2005 that the increase would require council approval
before going into effect.
Annual cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage would be
enacted starting Jan. 1, 2009, and every year thereafter.
The cost-of-living increase for future years has always been
part of the ordinance, according to Carol Oppenheimer of the Living Wage
Network. The increases would be based on a Western regional consumer price
index.
Oppenheimer said the changes were the result of "some
tricky negotiations" involving the network, business leaders and others.
"We feel this is a fair resolution," Oppenheimer
said. "It will accomplish a lot for the city. The importance of getting
everyone covered and getting the COLA was worth giving up the $10.50."
"We feel that $9.50 is a credible and defensible
minimum wage as long as it's applied across the board," Oppenheimer said.
Oppenheimer also noted that the changes would eliminate
enforcement problems stemming from the existing part of the law that applies
the minimum wage only to businesses with at least 25 workers. She said some
employers have tried to get around the law by taking out separate businesses
licenses for two branches of the same operation.
"We'd rather have workers with money in their pockets
to spend rather than litigation for several years while a judge decides,"
Oppenheimer said.
A recent court complaint filed by the city against the Santa
Fe Arby's over an alleged failure to pay the minimum
wage centered on whether a business has to have 25 employees in Santa Fe alone—
or 25 workers including employees in outlets in other cities or elsewhere
outside of Santa Fe— for the living wage ordinance to apply. That would no
longer be an issue under the proposed changes.
Councilor Patti Bushee, one of
only two councilors who hasn't signed on to the changes as a sponsor, said she
still hasn't seen the details of the proposal and wants to know more about the
planned COLA increases.
She said she was happy to hear there would not be a push to
go to a $10.50-an-hour minimum wage.
"I don't think the votes were there to go to $10.50 an
hour, anyway," Bushee said.
She said city government itself doesn't have the money to
pay a $10.50-an-hour minimum wage.
"We can't afford it," she said.
She said it was fine to extend the law to all employers and
that she believes most are already paying $9.50 an hour.
"The mom and pops have had time to adjust," she
said.
City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer
said she hadn't signed on as a sponsor of the resolution because she hadn't yet
read it.
"As it's been discussed, I have no objections to it,
but I haven't read the detail," she said. "I do not sign onto
resolutions until I read them."
Heldmeyer said she wanted to make
sure that part-time workers were covered in the proposed new ordinance, as they
are in the one currently in effect.
In addition to Coss, sponsors of the amendments are
Councilors Matthew Ortiz, Miguel Chavez, Chris Calvert, Rebecca Wurzburger, Ron Trujillo and Carmichael Dominguez.
"It's a wonderful place for the city to be," Wurzburger said. "Four years ago, we were still very divided. Today, the same group of
people were all together. I'm also very happy we'll have a study group
before we move forward."
But not everyone is happy with the proposal.
Activist Jerilou Hammett, a
longtime supporter of the living wage law, said it was "outrageous"
to abandon plans to move the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour.
"They've cut a deal with the business community,"
Hammett said. She said the changes would benefit big employers like hotels and
that most small business already pay their employees more than $10.50.
"This is not going to help working people in this
town," she said, adding that $10.50 an hour is still below the poverty
level.
Oppenheimer responded that getting all workers covered was important and that, in fact, many workers are not paid
$9.50 an hour now, according to both business leaders and workers. She said
it's unfair that some workers are covered and others aren't.