By KRWG News
Santa Fe – The Santa Fe official in charge of determining adjustments in the city's minimum wage says the current $9.85 hourly minimum is likely to hold through 2010.
Santa Fe has an ordinance that requires city officials to determine each year whether the minimum wage should be adjusted based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for certain wage earners.
The head of Santa Fe's constituent services division, Sebastian Gurule, says the Consumer Price Index through October was down 8 percent.
Gurule says he's releasing tentative wage information because he's gotten calls from businesses preparing budgets for 2010.
The city attorney has said the ordinance doesn't provide for a minimum wage rollback if the consumer price index drops.
Last January, the minimum wage rose to $9.85 from $9.50 in 2008.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.