Enacted into federal law in 1938, minimum wage is the lowest level of compensation that businesses are legally permitted to pay their employees.
New Mexico’s minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, a rate that places the Land of Enchantment 30th in the U.S. in state-by-state minimum wage rankings.
New Mexico’s minimum wage is 25 cents an hour higher than the federal government’s base minimum wage of $7.25.
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Like most other states, New Mexico’s minimum wage trails far behind the living wage. A living wage is defined as an hourly rate significant enough to support a normal standard of living free from reliance on government programs,
according to the Living Wage Foundation.
The living wage in New Mexico varies depending on family makeup. According to the
Living Wage Calculator created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the living wage that one adult needs to earn to be self-sufficient is $10.13.
The living wage rate more than doubles to $20.78 for household of one adult and one child.
One adult with two children needs a living wage of $24.86, and the living wage for one adult with three children is $31.51.
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New Mexico’s minimum wage was eclipsed by the minimum wage established in its largest city of Albuquerque. In 2012, residents voted to raise the city’s minimum wage $1 from $7.50 an hour to $8.50 hourly starting on Jan. 1, 2013.
The ballot measure also set up automatic yearly increases in the rate based on inflation,
according to the Albuquerque Journal. The minimum wage in Albuquerque has increased three times since the ballot initiative passed, with the rate currently resting at $8.75 an hour.
New Mexico's capital enacted the
City of Santa Fe Living Wage Ordinance in 2015, requiring all employers in the city to pay at least $10.84 per hour to all workers, including part-time and temporary staff.
New Mexico's southernmost city, Las Cruces, which is located about an hour's drive from Texas and the U.S. border,
upped its minimum wage requirement to $8.40 in 2015 with increases set to raise it to $10.10 by 2019.
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