Michelle Lujan-Grisham on Jobs

Raise minimum wage from $7.50 to $12

Opposes right-to-work law (supports unions)

Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D): No, opposes.

Steve Pearce (R): Yes, supports.

Raise minimum wage to $10 now & $12 later

Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D): Yes. Supports raising to $10 immediately, & to $12 in 4 years, indexed to inflation.

Steve Pearce (R): No. Raising the minimum wage would hurt small business & people at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Increase minimum wage to $10 and then higher in the future

Lujan Grisham, a three-term member of the U.S. House from Albuquerque, is one of four Democrats running for governor. She included both the minimum wage hike and the proposed changes to the film rebate program in a newly-released economic plan. "We need to create jobs right away in order to jump-start New Mexico's economy," Lujan Grisham said in announcing the plan.

New Mexico has not increased its $7.50-an-hour minimum wage since 2009, though Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces have all enacted minimum wages that are higher than the state's base rate. In her plan, Lujan Grisham said she would push to increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2019, and then raise it again to $12 per hour by 2023. Future increases would be tied to inflation.

Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016.

Congressional summary: Increases the federal minimum wage for employees to:

1. $8.20 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment
2. $9.15 an hour beginning 1 year later,
3. $10.10 an hour beginning 2 years later, and
4. an amount determined by increases in the Consumer Price Index, beginning annually after 3 years.

• Increases the federal minimum wage for tipped employees to $3.00 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment, with annual CPI adjustments.

Proponent`s argument in favor (RaiseTheMinimumWage.com): The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour remains decades out of date, and the federal minimum wage for tipped workers--$2.13 per hour--has not increased in over 20 years. The minimum wage of the past provided significantly more buying power than it does today. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.56 today when adjusted for inflation.

Opponent`s argument against: (Neil King in Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2014): The CBO concluded that a jump in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could eliminate 500,000 jobs. For Republicans, the report provided ammunition that a higher minimum wage would kill jobs. Democrats pointed to the CBO`s findings that the higher wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. But both sides missed a key finding: That a smaller hike from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour would cause almost no pain, and still lift 300,000 people out of poverty while raising the incomes of 7.6 million people.Congressional Budget Office report:: Once fully implemented, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3%. Some people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings, due to the heightened demand for goods and services. The increased earnings for low-wage workers would total $31 billion. Accounting for all increases and decreases, overall real income would rise by $2 billion.

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