Minimum wage increase; Change affects those on lower end of pay scales

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By: Diego Lopez

CIBOLA COUNTY, NM – Minimum wage across New Mexico will increase by $1.50 on January 1, 2021. The minimum wage increased to $9 an hour on January 1, 2020. Prior to that New Mexico had the second lowest minimum wage in the country at $7.50.

This means that the new minimum wage will be $10.50 starting Jan. 1, 2021. For tipped employees minimum wage will be $2.55 per hour starting Jan. 1.

The minimum wage will increase $11.50 on Jan. 1, 2022 and increase again to $12 on Jan. 1, 2023.

These increases in the minimum wage are due to the New Mexico Minimum Wage Act of 2019, passed by the legislature and signed into law by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in April of 2019.

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions is in the process of notifying businesses across the state to prepare for the wage increase. Employers will be required to put up a poster in a space where employees can see the information about the changes in the minimum wage.

The last such increase in the state occurred in 2009, when New Mexico increased its minimum wage to $7.50, which was 25 cents more per hour than the federal minimum wage that also increased that year.