STATE News:
ALBUQUERQUE – As momentum for higher wages and the call for a $15 minimum wage grows across the nation, working families in New Mexico will see some increases in their state’s minimum wage in 2017.
Starting on New Year’s Day, working families in some New Mexico municipalities will get a boost in their paychecks. While these wages are an increase on the paltry minimum wage offered by the federal government, they are far from that $15 an hour that would approach a living wage.
In 2017, New Mexico Working Families will fight to make sure that our state’s minimum is enough for a family to live on,” said Eric Griego, state director for New Mexico Working Families.
In 2016, seven states, 14 cities and four counties approved raises in the minimum wage, which will lift pay for a total of 11.8 million workers. Jan. 1, 2017, low wage workers in 22 states, 33 cities and four counties will see pay increases, and low wage workers in three states, 16 cities, and four counties will receive raises later in 2017.
In states like Oregon, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, the Working Families Party was a leading voice in many of past year’s campaigns to raise the minimum wage. In 2017, Working Families Party will be fighting to continue to raise wages, with major campaigns in places like Rhode Island, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Md.
