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I take it you folks read in yesterday's paper that the Chamber of Commerce is trying to prevent the new raise from going into effect because of the depressing economic times.
Well....They better not, otherwise I'll take Santa Fe off my list of places to consider. The Chamber of Commerce here in Flagstaff is TERRIBLY anti-labor/anti-growth, and they hate newcomers, and I won't put up with yet another C of C like this.
Santa Fe doesn't have a recession, and the residents/tourists have plenty of discretionary income, so there really is no excuse to not raise it to $10+ per hour.
Do you know the exact $10+ figure for 1/1/2009? I've been searching for it on the internet with no success.
People do indeed move places these days because of the presence or absence of a Minimum Wage, whether a state has unions or not, etc. The Santa Fe chamber better understand this if they want to recruit potential residents.
Well....They better not, otherwise I'll take Santa Fe off my list of places to consider. The Chamber of Commerce here in Flagstaff is TERRIBLY anti-labor/anti-growth, and they hate newcomers, and I won't put up with yet another C of C like this.
Santa Fe doesn't have a recession, and the residents/tourists have plenty of discretionary income, so there really is no excuse to not raise it to $10+ per hour.
Do you know the exact $10+ figure for 1/1/2009? I've been searching for it on the internet with no success.
People do indeed move places these days because of the presence or absence of a Minimum Wage, whether a state has unions or not, etc. The Santa Fe chamber better understand this if they want to recruit potential residents.
We have enough residents. I'm personally against the minimum wage because I feel it's bad for businesses. I totally disagree that the residents have plenty of discretionary income. You must not be taking the southside into consideration.
According to a November 14, 2008 article in the Santa Fe New Mexican: "the city put off plans to make it $10.50 at the start of 2009; instead, future raises would be pegged to the regional Consumer Price Index." At this time that equates to a 5% increase, so if things go ahead as planned, the new living wage starting January 2009 will be $9.975/hour.
What is a house worth? Whatever someone will pay for it.
Therefore.....
What is an employee worth? Whatever the employer will pay.
If you are an asset to a company, you should make more. If you are a liability or non productive, you should earn less. I say this, as someone that has lived on both sides of the fence.
I have been a proponent of the living wage since the beginning, but I do think the increase should be put off. Since the living wage has been made to include all businesses instead of those of more than 25 employees, it does have an impact. I work at a small business after retiring from state government and I know this will affect us greatly.
It looks like the increase will be about 30 cents an hour. The city still hasn't figured it out exactly. A raise of 30 cents will mean $12 gross a week for someone who works 40 hours.. After taxes your probably looking at $8. That's not even enough to take a family of four to McDonalds. But to a business with 10 employees, that is $120 dollars a week, plus additional taxes. That comes out to about $500 a month, $6000 a year. In this economy, there are a lot of small businesses that can't afford that. $9.50 already is the highest in the country, I believe. In this economy, we have to also look out for the health of small businesses. They employ a lot of people in Santa Fe. I know we will have to cut some employee's hours starting January 1.
I would love to see the wage raised when it is economically feasable. But right now I believe it is too much of a burden on small businesses. If they put back the caveat that it only applied to businesses over 25 employees, I would agree to the increase.
Sounds like your City Council has a one track mind if their one and only mitigation towards bad economic times is to NOT raise the minimum wage as high as they originally planned to.
Other mitigations that would allow the minimum wage increase to go into effect would include lowering taxes on businesses, so they can afford to pay their employees at $10.50/hr, and not have to lay anyone off.
We have enough residents. I'm personally against the minimum wage because I feel it's bad for businesses. I totally disagree that the residents have plenty of discretionary income. You must not be taking the southside into consideration.
You feel that you have enough residents? Do you think that most people in Santa Fe agree with you? If yes, with all due respect to your point of view, and speaking as one who wants to start small businesses w/o government restrictions, I wouldn't move back there.
Flagstaffites have the same issue with newcomers, and they don't rent to newbies or hire them because they don't want the town to grow.
What is wrong with increasing population in underpopulated mountain towns? I'm from Seattle and Tacoma, Wa., where there are 3.5 million people. We have mass transit, a great bus system, plenty of open spaces, and hundreds of miles of beach along Puget Sound, and thousands of square miles of national forest in the Cascade mountains.
Personally, I think that 50,000-100,000 is way to small and can be doubled. In my opinion, I think it is selfish to not allow new businesses to come to Flagstaff when the unemployment is in double digits. I know people here who completely and adamantly disagree with me, and we just agree to disagree. However, Flagstaff somehow needs to get more businesses and more jobs to fix the unemployment, crime, and drug problems.
Sorry if I keep discussing the problems of Mountain towns in my posts, or, at least what I perceive to be problems (you may disagree with me). However, I guess I'm just too much of a "fiscal libertarian," so perhaps a place like Eugene-Springfield, Oregon (with 200,000+ people) would be better, or, the Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz market (with 500,000+ people), or, Albuquerque-Rio Rancho with 600,000 in the metro. The new "warehouse wallmart" (as I call it) in Bernalillo is incredible. Most people would disagree with me. However, I'm not "fiscally libertarian" on the minimum wage, because I'm socially progressive, and I think it should be $12 nationwide.
What do you think? Should Santa Fe and other mountain towns (Bend, Bozemann, Boulder, and Flagstaff) grow and recruit more businesses, or, stay the same size?-tom
The Mayor just announced it: Minimum wage starting January, 2009, will go up to $9.92/hour.
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Santa Fe City Council Has A One Track Mind
