Santa Fe minimum-wage hike coming

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Santa Fe's already a pretty friendly place for minimum wage workers.

It's about to get even friendlier in 2012.

Starting in March, the city's minimum wage will get a bump from $9.85 an hour to between $10.22 and $10.32 an hour. The final number is subject to change because by city law, Santa Fe's minimum wage is tied to inflation data not available until mid-to-late January.

Santa Fe's new minimum wage could be nearly 40 percent higher than the state's minimum wage of $7.50 an hour.

Mayor David Coss said the higher wages are good for workers and good for the city.

"Low-wage workers spend the money they get and so they'll spend it in Santa Fe buying groceries, paying for fuel, and so that's going to be a little more money in the Santa Fe economy," said Coss.

The city's minimum wage could end up higher than any other city in the country. San Francisco's minimum wage will jump to $10.24 per hour Jan. 1.

A full-time minimum wage worker in Santa Fe will earn around $6,000 more a year than a counterpart in other state cities.

Coss sees Santa Fe's higher minimum wage as a race-to-the-top of sorts for the city.

"I think Santa Feans many years ago decided we're not competing to be the lowest-wage economy in the state or in the country," said Coss. "We're competing to be a high-wage economy with good jobs."

But many Santa Fe business owners are not happy.

Chip Storm, who owns ski and snowboard rental shop Ski-Tech, said the minimum wage hike is a double whammy for businesses.

"It also increases my payroll tax as well, my FICA and Medicare, because every company and small business has to match their employee's FICA, so right off the bat it increases that," said Storm. "So it's really getting us from every angle."

Storm said another hidden consequence of the increase is it keeps more experienced employees from getting wages they may have ordinarily earned. That's because Storm says he has to pay trainees a higher rate, leaving less money to reward employees with more experience.

Santa Fe originally passed its living wage ordinance in 2003 and it took effect in 2004.