SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A bill to raise the statewide hourly minimum wage in New Mexico for the first time in a decade and do away with exemptions for tipped workers advanced in the Legislature Friday over the objections of restaurant owners and wait staff.
A House committee on economic development endorsed the bill by a 5-4 vote with only Democrats in support and one member absent.
During a hearing that stretched for nearly four hours, supportive comments from organized labor groups and advocates for the poor were followed by blistering criticism of the bill from restaurateurs and wait staff who said their livelihoods are at risk, along with Santa Fe’s reputation for attentive service and fine dining.
The bill would raise the minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $12 by mid-2021 and tie further increases to inflation estimates. The state’s labor secretary, Bill McCamley, said that aligns with the Democratic governor’s goals to lift full-time workers with children out of poverty. He estimated that a minimum wage increase would affect 160,000 workers in a state of 2.1 million residents.
Under current law, businesses can pay workers as little as $2.13 an hour if they receive enough tips to surpass the state’s $7.50 minimum hourly wage. Democratic bill sponsor Rep. Miguel Garcia of Albuquerque says that system is prone to abuse, and he has proposed eliminating the exemption.
Restaurant owners and employees said the bill puts their livelihoods in peril.
“Our tipped employees make a lot of money, especially in the town of Santa Fe, and they contribute to the local economy,” said James Campbell, owner of La Boca restaurant in Santa Fe. “Some restaurants are not going to survive it.”
Rep. Moe Maestas of Albuquerque urged colleagues to rally around the bill, echoing comments by dozens of advocates for low-wage workers.
“The federal government has abandoned its role in regulating the labor market,” said Maestas, alluding to $7.25 federal minimum wage. “The disparity of income is rivaling the Gilded Age of a little more than a century ago.”
Maestas told people concerned with tipped-worker exemption that other committees are likely to consider their concerns and make amendments.
Republican Espanola Mayor and restaurant proprietor Javier Sanchez cautioned the committee against imposing automatic wage increases that could hurt small businesses later. He said his business already pays more than current minimum wage.
A competing bill from Senate corporations committee chairman Clemente Sanchez of Grants would raise the minimum wage to $10 and leave the current system for tip workers intact. It has not yet been debated.
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