Albuquerque's Minimum Wage

[discreet_chaos]

I must take issue with the defeatist language coming from some quarters in response to Albuquerque's failure to raise the minimum wage during the recent referendum. I don't live in Albuquerque, nor do I operate any businesses within its boundaries, so my support for the hike was lukewarm at best. I feel that if Albuquerque had successfully raised

Comments

[rainswolf]

Yeah, but is it going to ever pass statewide? That is the question.

[discreet_chaos]

Yeah, but is it going to ever pass statewide?
Certainly not, if the advocates just give up and let the issue drop.

I've only lived in New Mexico for three years, so I'm still learning the ways of the local government and getting used to the idea of a part-time legislature, hopefully somebody will correct me if I'm wrong; But I'm under the impression, a statewide hike would only take an action by the governing body and one would think, the immeasurable retaliatory threat from the general public would be enough to force relief. Rich people wouldn't be a single-issue voter on this matter, but the less wealthy could be easily convinced that a particular legislator had taken food from their table. With a legislative action there's someone to blame, but with a defeated referendum, the bad guys are unseen forces which are harder to target.

[sabotlours]

I find the logic being used by many business somewhat flawed. They assume that if they have to raise prices to pay their workers more, people will suddenly stop consuming. One just has to look at the recent gas price explosion to see that that is not the case. Would I drive to Rio Rancho or Los Lunas just to save a few bucks since their wages are lower there? No. Would I suddenly stop eating at a restaurant because the $5 burger is now $5.50? No. I see low wages as one reason New Mexico has lagged behind the rest of the Southwest in terms of growth and development. I hope the minimum wage measure makes it to the state level.

[schlake]

I don't think that minimum wage is the problem at all. It is a supply and demand issue, really. If people are willing to work for minimum wage, then the system is working. If people aren't willing to work for minimum wage, then the employers will raise the wages to a point that they can attract employes. Arbitrarily inflating the wages of the lowest paid people just causes prices to trickle up through the rest of society. The guy running the cash register at the gas station has to get paid more, so prices at the gas station go up to compensate that. Vegetables now cost a little more to deliver to the store because of the gas increase, so their price goes up. At the store not only are the vegetables more expensive, but the people putting the vegetables out have to paid more, so the price of vegetables goes up. Money, in effect, becomes worth less. Price fixing is bad, and minimum wage is just price fixing on labor. What we need is a smaller gap between the rich and the poor. People shouldn't be exploited by their employers