El Paso City Council Sets Goal to Increase Minimum Wage to $15 by 2026

The El Paso City Council is increasing the local minimum wage for city workers to $15 by 2026. The resolution, sponsored by South-West City Rep. Chris Canales, applies to the city's 6,767 city employees.

In early 2022, the city's minimum wage was $10.36. Subsequently, El Paso's minimum wage has increased and now stands at $12.11. Nonetheless, the MIT Living Wage Calculator shows that the city is still behind the amount required for a single person with no children to get by ($14.57). Raising the minimum wage will cost the city millions of dollars and will have ripple effects on wage increases for higher-wage city jobs. To this point, the city has accounted for that ripple effect in the budget, according to City Manager Tommy Gonzalez(Kolenc 2023)

Reference: Kolenc, Vic. 2023. "El Paso City Council Sets $15 per Hour Minimum Wage Goal for City Workforce." El Paso Times. March 15, 2023. https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/el-paso/2023/03/15/ep-city-council-sets-15-per-hour-minimum-wage-goal-for-city-workforce/70013172007/.