Minimum wage bill moves forward despite criticism

SANTA FE — A proposal to boost the minimum wage in New Mexico managed to do just about the impossible on Monday— make everyone unhappy, conservatives and liberals alike.

The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce joined the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, for example, to testify against the bill.

In fact, no one in a packed committee

room spoke in favor of it.

But the proposal — cosponsored by five Democrats, including House Speaker Brian Egolf — has a real chance to move through the Legislature this session. It narrowly cleared its first committee on Monday and must pass one more before reaching the House floor.

The bill would boost New Mexico’s minimum wage to $9.25 an hour — a 23 percent increase over the $7.50 minimum now — starting in 2018.

It also would prohibit cities and counties from adopting laws that regulate how private employers can schedule their workers.

Business associations opposed the first provision. They said it was simply too big an increase, potentially leading to price increases and job losses, especially in rural areas.

Left-leaning groups, meanwhile, opposed the latter provision, arguing that local governments deserve the right to protect low-wage workers who need predictable hours to make ends meet.

“I just wanted to thank you for bringing us all together,” joked Rep. David Gallegos, a Eunice Republican who voted against the bill.

Reps. Debbie Rodella and Carl Trujillo — two of the five sponsors — told the House Labor and Economic Development Committee on Monday that they had spoken to people on all sides of the minimumwage debate and tried to craft a compromise.

The opposition from all quarters “told me we have a pretty decent bill here,” Trujillo said.

And Rodella said the sponsors are willing to consider more changes.

“I don’t think this is the final product,” she said.

But the audience in the committee room — which holds about 80 people, with others waiting out in the hall to take turns testifying — had little good to say about the bill.

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the 23 percent increase was simply too big for the chamber to support, but something smaller might win its endorsement.

“We do believe a minimum wage increase could very well come out of this session, and one we could support,” Cole said. “We’d like to be at the table for that discussion.”

The New Mexico Business Coalition and Restaurant Association also spoke against the bill.

And it drew criticism from the OLÉ Education Fund, New Mexico Voices for Children and Center on Law and Poverty. They raised concern about the provision that would preempt local governments from regulating the “schedule of work hours that a private sector employer provides its employees.”

“Local governments and local voters are in the best position to decide local workplace rules,” said Tim Davis, staff attorney for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.

A representative of OLÉ said the group was reviewing whether the law would preempt a proposal going before Albuquerque voters in October — which would require employers, regardless of size, to allow their workers to earn paid sick time off.

Despite the criticism, House Bill 442 won a recommendation of passage on a 6-5 vote along party lines and now heads to the Judiciary Committee, potentially its last stop before the House floor.

The sponsors of the measure include Democrats Rodella, of Española; Egolf and Trujillo, of Santa Fe; and Patricio Ruiloba and Miguel Garcia, of Albuquerque.

The proposal wouldn’t prohibit cities and counties from enacting higher minimum wages.

At least three other minimum wage bills are still alive in the Legislature, with proposals ranging from $8.45 to $15 an hour.