The Las Cruces City Council met Tuesday, September 22, via video conference, for a Special Work Session regarding the City’s proposed minimum wage for 2021.
City Council especially sought input from employees, business owners or managers in Las Cruces about scheduled changes to the State of New Mexico minimum wage and the next phase of the City of Las Cruces minimum wage implementation. Several business owners spoke at the special work session.
New Mexico Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley also participated in part of the Special Work Session. The council has acknowledged the COVID-19 public health crisis has created a serious, negative economic impact on restaurants and small businesses.
Currently, Las Cruces’ minimum wage is $10.25 an hour and the minimum wage for tipped employees is $4.10 an hour, plus any tips a server receives.
On Jan. 1, 2021, New Mexico’s and Las Cruces’ minimum wages are scheduled to increase. The state’s minimum wage will increase to $10.50 per hour and wages for tipped employees will be $2.35 per hour. The City will also adopt the state’s minimum wage of $10.50 per hour and based on the municipal ordinance, the wage for tipped employees will be $4.20 per hour.
The City of Las Cruces has until October 15 to publish the minimum wage that will become effective on January 1, 2021.
Other possible solutions to help businesses and their employees during the pandemic were also offered. Those suggestions included:
- Meeting with individual businesses to try to determine what help might be available to offset costs of doing business without negatively impacting the business and its employees, and without violating New Mexico’s anti-donation laws.
- Possibly reducing annual business registration fees for one year.
- Possibly reducing the costs of late renewal fees for business registrations.
The special work session has been archived and can be found online at clctv.com and at YouTube.com/clctv20.