Albuquerque City Councilors face controversy over tipped minimum wage law

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque City Council chambers were packed Monday evening as members of the community filed in to hear what city lawmakers were going to do about the local minimum wage and tipped workers. Controversy erupted last week when it came to light that some councilors wanted to match the city’s tipped wage to the state which would mean a reduction of more than $4 an hour.

A proposed bill to officially raise the City of Albuqeruque’s minimum wage to the state level from $8.50 to $12 was introduced earlier this month by Councilor Nichole Rogers.

But there was community uproar when Councilors Brook Bassan and Renee Grout wanted to add a provision to also bring the city’s tipped worker wage to match the state level, a reduction from $7.20 an hour to just $3 an hour.

They said it would help restaurant owners keep prices low and also benefit back-of-house workers. Grout and Bassan withdrew that amendment to allow more time for debate. “I wanted to achieve some kind of balance and this is definitely not balance. I’m not trying to become divisive for any servers in the community,” said Councilor Bassan.

It was a packed chamber with the bill back on the agenda and people lined up to speak out. “I’m against the decrease of the pay for servers. Like I said, it’s affecting people’s money at this point. The pay is already so low for servers and they’re reliant on tips that you just already making a sucky situation worse,” said Manager Christoper Trujillo, Los Pookies Mexican Restaurant.

While many spoke against the bill, the New Mexico Restaurant Association has spoken in favor of the bill at a previous meeting.

Councilors Bassan and Grout did not reintroduce the amendment to lower the tipped minimum wage.

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