NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans City Council has approved an ordinance requiring a minimum $10.55 an hour wage starting next year for anyone working for a company getting significant contracts or subsidies from the city.
The council voted 6-0 Thursday for a "living wage ordinance" requiring companies with city contracts worth $25,000 or more to pay their workers at least $10.55 an hour and provide them a week's paid leave annually. Companies that receive city subsidies such as tax breaks or reduced rents worth $100,000 or more would face the same requirements. Councilwoman Stacey Head was absent.
There was no voiced opposition to the ordinance. Most who spoke favorably described the move as a first step.
Advocates have argued for a higher wage, following a national campaign that is pushing for $15 an hour, and said the ordinance should cover a larger range of groups that receive benefits from city government. A report released by The Data Center on Wednesday estimated that a household with one adult and one child in the New Orleans metro would need to make about $20 an hour to cover all the costs of living in the area.
"I will not condone city funds going to pay poverty wages," said Councilman Jared Brossett, the measure's lead sponsor.
"There's no reason why good and hardworking New Orleanians who are paid on the city's dime should be paid poverty wages," he said.
But the city can set its own rules for contracting. "I wish we could do more, but as a city we have the power to put our money where our mouth is," Brossett said. "This is a bare minimum for a full-time worker to escape the grips of poverty."
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Mayor Mitch Landrieu raised the minimum wage for city workers to $10.10 an hour last year.
The New Orleans Advocate’s Jeff Adelson reports Landrieu, who still has to sign the ordinance into law, has indicated he supports the measure approved Thursday.
The potential cost to the city of raising wages is unknown. A financial analysis prepared by the Landrieu administration earlier this summer did not provide hard figures for how many workers would see raises or what the total cost would be to the city or its contractors. Instead, that report only laid out the types of workers that would likely be affected by the ordinance.
