COMMENTARY: In his recent commentary, “Large minimum wage increase could push vulnerable New Mexicans out of workforce,” Zachary Fort bases his assumptions about the danger of a minimum wage increase on the idea of an efficiency wage. His thesis is that workers who earn more should be higher-skilled — and that New Mexico’s workers aren’t up to the task and don’t deserve higher wages.
His argument is another fallacy thrown up by those who want to keep business profits high on the backs of low-wage workers.
New Mexico should raise the minimum wage because it is the right thing to do for workers, families and communities. Raising the minimum amount that an employer can pay a worker has positive effects beyond raising that worker’s wages, but at the core of the policy change is to honor and dignify work by paying a fair rate. New Mexico’s current minimum wage of $7.50 doesn’t come close.
Courtesy photo
Eric Griego
The Economic Policy Institute estimates a single parent with two children in Albuquerque needs to earn more than $65,000 per year for a modest but adequate quality of life. Even a $15 minimum wage doesn’t come close to that standard, but it is a step toward escaping a cycle of poverty.
Higher wages mean workers and families who won’t have to forego basic living standards in order to meet their monthly bills. Higher wages can mean not having to balance whether to pay for rent or food, health care, or heat.
Fort’s argument also assumes that many low-wage workers are unskilled and unable to learn. Contrary to common myths about minimum wage workers, research shows they are not all teenagers working extra shifts or low-skilled workers. More than 90 percent of these workers are 20 or over, 31 percent are parents, and 43 percent have post-secondary educational experience.
The truth is more than 40 percent of the state’s total workforce would be affected by a $15 minimum wage. Raising New Mexico’s minimum wage gradually to $15 would lift pay for 370,000 workers, strengthening families, communities and our state’s economy as a whole.
Raising the minimum wage doesn’t lead to shuttered downtowns and widespread unemployment. Rather, low-wage workers spend increased wages immediately on goods and services in their local areas. That provides a stimulus to local businesses. Higher wages also reduce employee training and turnover costs. These effects are documented in decades of rigorous academic research across the United States, rather than the flimsy industry-backed “facts” proffered by Fort.
And though this doesn’t fit business opposition’s fact pattern, raising the minimum wage saves all of us by reducing workers’ reliance on social services. Nearly 67 percent of Americans who receive public assistance are in a family with at least one working adult. Taxpayers are, in effect, subsidizing big business profits through social services. Imagine the priorities we could fund if workers earned more and relied less on public supports.
In the 2019 legislative session, we have the ability to raise the state’s minimum wage. Several new progressive candidates were elected to the state legislature this year, in some cases taking out lawmakers who were roadblocks to progress on wages.
Policymakers shouldn’t be distracted by the arguments thrown up by some in the business community to keep their profits high while keeping workers from moving forward. The best way to benefit families, communities and our state is to raise the minimum wage.
Eric Griego is currently state director of the N.M. Working Families Party, a progressive social and economic justice organization that supports pro-working families elected officials and policies at all levels of government. Agree with his opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary here.