Given the constant increase – accelerated by inflation in the last year – in the cost of living in El Paso, the Cabildo will discuss a proposal this Tuesday that would gradually increase the minimum wage for municipal workers to 15 dollars per hour.
The target salary would be reached by the end of fiscal year 2026, which ends in August 2027, according to the proposal introduced on the agenda by councilor Chris Canales, who took office in January of this year.
The idea is, according to Canales’ vision, that the municipal government “would consider future increases to guarantee that City employees can earn a salary that allows them to support themselves and their families.”
This proposal would only benefit the employees of the City Government, and not the workers of the public sector or other government entities, it is clarified in the proposal that will be discussed in the regular meeting.
Currently, the minimum hourly wage for City of El Paso employees is $12.11 per hour.
“The MIT Living Wage Calculator suggests that a single adult in El Paso in 2023 would need to earn at least $14.67 per hour to cover basic expenses,” according to background material on the City Council agenda.
“Raising the minimum wage can provide benefits that allow employees to support themselves and their families to strengthen employee morale and increase productivity.”
The living wage is the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support himself and his family. The assumption is that the sole provider works full time (2,080 hours per year). The tool provides information for individuals and households with one or two working adults and zero to three children. For households with two working adults, all values are per working adult, single or in a family, unless otherwise noted.
The state minimum wage is the same for everyone, regardless of how many dependents they may have. The data is updated annually, in the first quarter of the new year. State minimum wages are determined based on the published value of the minimum wage as of January 1 of the following year. The poverty rate reflects a person’s gross annual income. We have converted it to an hourly wage for the sake of comparison.
Texas does not have a state minimum wage and adheres to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Last year, the City of El Paso increased its wages by $1, helping to hire 2,067 non-uniform positions; however, in January the City still had more than 1,000 vacancies, according to Laura Cruz Acosta, a spokesperson for the City.
“We know that our minimum wage is not where it should be. That is why we have been working in recent years to increase it,” the spokesperson said in writing. “We will continue to discuss how we can address our minimum wage this year and in future years with Council members during our year-long budget process.”
