Santa Fe’s Minimum Wage Will Increase To $10.29 In March

The “living wage” rate in Santa Fe will increase to $10.29 per hour effective March 1, city government announced today.

That makes Santa Fe’s groundbreaking local minimum wage the highest in the country. San Francisco, the only other city with a required pay rate for all of the private sector that is anywhere near Santa Fe’s, recently increased its minimum wage to $10.24 an hour.

The Santa Fe minimum wage has been $9.85 for the past two years.

As called for in Santa Fe’s living wage ordinance, the new wage rate is based on increases over the past two years in the federally determined consumer price index  in the Western region for “urban wage earners and clerical workers.” All employers within the city limits are required to pay workers the city minimum wage.

Some local business leaders have said they aren’t happy with raising the living wage but so far no organized effort to fight it has emerged.