New Mexico raises min wage to $7.50ph! (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: low income, for rent)

[BrianH]

New Mexico Approves Minimum Wage Hike
Reported by: Jennifer Laxson
03/19/2007 03:19pm
New Mexico legislature said yes to raising minimum wage. Over the course of 2 years the new minimum wage will rise to $7.50 an hour. Also today, the legislation approved a number of tax cuts. Those cuts will help return $52 million to low and middle income families. Also, it will eliminate taxes on active duty military salaries.

Source: http://www.myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=2135 (broken link)

So what do you all think? I think its a terrible idea, especially for those of us living in a small town. From my experience, when minimum wage goes up, so do the prices of products. I can see a gallon of milk rising fro $2.99 to $3.50 when the change takes place. Alot of people dont look at a pay rise doing that, but it does. Employers inflate prices to cover the cost of pay increase, and just *that* little bit extra too. Consumer spending should increase a fair bit too, but may cause trouble becuase when you see a pay rise of $2 or so an hour, you think you can buy more, get that HDTV for $100 a month, but it only hits you as i said earlier, when the price of goods go up, youre in the exact same position were in before! Im no expert by any means, but IMHO i can see this happening.

I do think its a good idea for the military tax cut.

[Greenmon]

Having lived for 55yrs and have worked since i was 12yrs ,(yes i started part time), these wages are a joke, one has to get an education and,or go into business for yourself to make a good living and support a family. I tell my Son ,( who is almost eleven, its lot more fun being comfortable or rich, than poor. Having said that , i am not implying that only money makes you happy, but just think how many people you can help and Family as well. Dont waste time on TV ,Spending on Movies and Bull, study and be ethical in your business dealings,do good deeds, then you can be Honorable,Measured good Person. Oh yes have some fun on the way just not at the expense of others. Be Safe, and Live Well, AJ

PS cable raised the bill my Good Wife and I , got pissed off, cancelled and watch tv online- its free and good quality now. We save 91.00 thats a lot! in ten years over 11,000 dollars! if you put that in an annuity that is sate and fed tax free- you can save for college or a house.

[domino]

Contrary to popular belief, sellers are not free to raise prices without consequences. It's all about supply and demand. On the demand side, consumers are free to forego consumption, or reduce consumption when prices are too high. On the supply side, producers are free to forego production when prices are insufficient for recovery of costs. Increased costs cannot always be passed to consumers if the market will not bear it. That's why you have both producers and consumers complaining about the increase in minimum wages.
One would hope that NM is minimally impacted by the increase in the minimum wage. These are not the type jobs we should hope to attract to this state.

[BrianH]

The market will take it. People see they got a $2 pay rise per hour, but Milk only went up 50cent so thats cool, theyll pay for it. But its everything that will go up. Small business in small town cannot afford to have a pay hike for staff and not pass it on to their customers. Small business is already putting up with the mentality that its cheaper to drive 80 miles to walmart to save $20 on a shopping bill. So if they raise the prices, people will be quicker to leave the town and shop at Walart, eventually, driving the business out.

[Gallit]

That's a good point , Brian. And even Wal-Mart's prices have gone up.

I don't know what I think of the wage increase. All I know is, as a poor, full-time college student in Las Vegas, I can't hardly afford to eat as it is.

[GregW]

The reality of that wage is simple. A person working a full time job at $7.50 per hour, even with overtime, will not be able to live alone. The businesses that pay that poorly are being subsidized by the friend and families (and sometimes gov't welfare) of the employes. The biggest thing any state or the federal government could do to help out the low income people is eliminate any state or federal tax on incomes below twice the median. Around $40 K in NM IIRC.

Worrying about minimum wage when the state is spending way over $100 million to intice (bribe) investors to develop Spaceport is really misdirected. Investigating corporate welfare is a better use of time.

[BrianH]

I think youll find in smaller towns somebody living on $7.50ph could live on their own. Even on about $5.50 i think its workable. Ive seen places here for rent taht are $225pm and $350Pm with utilities included. Bigger cities like Clovis, Las Cruces and Abq might be able to afford a big min pay increase like that, but smaller towns like this wont.

[GregW]

No wonder I want to retire to a smaller town in NM. I currently pay $225 pm condo fee here in New Hampshire and about the same amount of property tax. With the pension I might be able to survive on $7.50 ph job. Even part time.

[Zoidberg]

I think if you look, in Albuquerque at least, at the employers who actually do pay minimum wage, most of them are large corporations headquartered out of state. The higher wages will come off their profits and prices will only see a modest boost (because labor is only one part of their costs, and they have to compete with internet and out-of-state competitors not bound by this minimum wage rule).

It may be hard to be living on minimum wage, but it sure is easy being a corporate executive. Even most corporate executives publicly agree with this.

[BrianH]

Sure, but then the municipality should be able to enforce a minimum wage like Santa Fe did.