By Dylan R.N. Crabb

New Mexico Representative Miguel Garcia (District 14) has filed a bill in the state House of Representatives – HB0031.  If passed and signed by our new governor (Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham), it would raise our statewide minimum wage to $10.00 and hour starting on July 1 of 2019; the following year (2020), the minimum wage would be raised again to $11.00 and hour; the next following year (2021), the minimum wage would be raised to $12.00 and hour; and from the year 2022 onward, the minimum wage would be evaluated every year to be aligned with the cost of living.  The potential law would measure costs of living based on the consumer price index as managed by the United States Department of Labor.