BernCo OKs min. wage rise to $9.05 per hour

Some 1,400 business owners in the county will have to comply

Some workers will see a little bit more in their paycheck with the new year after Bernalillo County commissioners on Tuesday approved a minimum wage cost of living increase from $8.85 to $9.05 per hour.

The tally was 4-0, with Commissioner James Smith excused from the vote.

Employees who work at businesses in unincorporated parts of the county will benefit, as well as 98 county employees — the majority are parks and recreation maintenance workers, and facilities custodian positions — with a set wage less than the new minimum wage of $9.05 per hour.

“I still think it’s below a living wage,” Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said, “but it takes in consideration that small-business owner that can’t afford to go up to $15 an hour like what other states are doing.”

Around 1,400 active business license holders in the unincorporated area of Bernalillo County are required to comply with the ordinance, excluding home-based businesses, and businesses located in the city of Albuquerque and in other jurisdictions within Bernalillo County.

The initial minimum wage increase ordi-

nance was implemented with two increases in 50-cent increments, the first of which was effective July 1, 2013, and the second Jan. 1, 2014.

That ordinance also requires consideration of an annual cost of living increase, calculated on the percentage increase of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. The cost of living increase for the 12-month period ending in August is 0.1947 cents. The ordinance calls for rounding the figure off to the nearest nickel, in this case it rounds up to 20 cents.

The effective date of the increase will take place Jan. 1, 2019.

PRATT APPOINTED: In other action, commissioners, not wanting to wait for the results of the general election in less than two weeks, appointed Democrat William Pratt to a fill the vacancy representing state House District 27, which is located in the Northeast Heights. The vote was a partisan 3-2, with Democrats Debbie O’Malley, Quezada and Maggie Hart Stebbins voting for the appointment, and Republicans Lonnie Talbert and Smith voting no. Pratt will serve until Jan. 1.