Dear Taxpayer:
As you've probably heard, lawmakers in Santa Fe are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would raise the state minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 an hour and allow for annual increases tied to inflation. New Mexico already has one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country, and this hike will undoubtedly result in lost jobs and investments by making it more expensive to do business in the state.
It's no secret that economic study after economic study has shown that minimum wages--and by extension, any increase in them--do more harm than good, particularly to the very workers they aim to protect. Not only do higher minimum wages fail to raise overall wage levels, they actually reduce overall employment by making unskilled and teenage workers more expensive to hire. Worse, by raising the cost of labor to businesses, minimum wage hikes raise inflation, which sticks all consumers with an unnecessary and economically unhealthy "tax hike." Employers may also be left with no choice but to get rid of less skilled employees, or simply pick up and move elsewhere.
Please contact your state legislators as soon as possible, and tell them to let the marketplace work for employers, employees, and taxpayers by keeping expensive government mandates out of the picture.
To find contact information for your legislators, click HERE.
Sincerely,Your Grassroots Action Team at NTU