Santa Fe minimum wage 2026

What to know about the Santa Fe minimum wage

Santa Fe's wage began as a living wage ordinance in 2002 and 2003, and was rewritten in 2007 after the council found that covering only businesses with 25 or more employees made the law hard to enforce.⁠³ Since then it has reached nearly every employer that needs a city business license, along with most nonprofits. Until 2026 it rose every March 1 with West Region consumer prices: 5.11% to $12.95 in 2022, then $14.03, $14.60, $15.00 and, on March 1, 2026, $15.40.⁠⁴⁠⁷⁠¹

Ordinance 2025-21, adopted November 12, 2025, changes both the level and the method. It lifts the wage to $17.50 on January 1, 2027, the same figure city employees have earned since January 1, 2026. From March 1, 2028, each increase will average the rise in the West Region CPI-U and in the federal Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit in Santa Fe; if one of the two is flat or falls, half of the other is used, and no raise may exceed 5%.⁠³ City officials describe it as the first minimum wage in the country tied directly to local housing costs.⁠¹

Tips and commissions count toward the wage for workers who usually receive more than $100 a month in them, but total pay must still reach the full city rate.⁠¹ Employers must hang the bilingual notice next to their business license, and an unpaid worker can sue for back wages plus twice the amount.⁠³

All 2026 rates

Compared with New Mexico

When a local minimum wage, the state minimum wage and the federal minimum wage differ, the employer must pay the highest one that applies to the work. For most covered work in Santa Fe, that is the local rate.

Tipped employees

For workers who usually get more than $100 a month in tips or commissions, tips count toward the living wage. The city says the base wage can be as low as $3.00 an hour in 2026; workers keep all tips, and tip pooling is allowed.

An employer that takes a tip credit must make up the difference whenever wages plus tips fall short of the full minimum wage for the workweek. See the tipped minimum wage guide.

How the rate changes

The wage rose every March 1 with the West Region Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) through March 1, 2026. Ordinance 2025-21 sets $17.50 for January 1, 2027; from March 1, 2028 each raise is the average of the yearly increases in the West Region CPI-U and the federal Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom home in Santa Fe, capped at 5% and never negative.

Ordinance 2025-21, adopted November 12, 2025, set the January 1, 2027 rate; the first raise under the rent-and-inflation formula is due March 1, 2028 and has not been calculated.

Rate history

Who is covered

Covers work inside city limits for any business that needs a city business license or registration, most nonprofits (not those funded mainly by Medicaid waivers), city contractors with service or construction contracts of $30,000 or more, and businesses receiving more than $25,000 in city economic development aid. Part-time, temporary and staffing-agency workers are included; owners' relatives, for-credit interns, students working for their own school, court-ordered community service workers and apprentices in nonprofit programs are not. Employer-paid health and child care benefits count as wages, and from 2027 vision, dental and housing benefits do too.

• The 2026 rate of $15.40 reflected a 2.68% rise in the West Region CPI-W.
• City employees have a higher floor of their own: $17.50 from January 1, 2026.
• Employers must post the living wage notice in English and Spanish next to their business license.
• Workers can sue for back wages plus twice the amount owed; the city can order back pay and reinstatement and revoke business licenses, and violations are also misdemeanors.
• Unincorporated Santa Fe County has its own living wage with the same $15.40 base in 2026 but different tipped rules.

Other local rates in New Mexico

• Santa Fe County (unincorporated areas)$15.40
• Las Cruces$13.01
• Albuquerque$12.00

Everywhere else in New Mexico, the state rate applies.

Get help or file a claim

If you are paid less than the minimum wage that applies to your job, you can file a wage claim with the agency below. Federal law prohibits firing or otherwise retaliating against a worker for complaining about federal minimum wage rights.

Sources

1. 1
   City of Santa Fe, Office of Economic Development, Living Wage in the City of Santa Fe Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   City of Santa Fe, Living Wage Ordinance poster, effective March 1, 2026 (English) Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   City of Santa Fe, Ordinance No. 2025-21, amending SFCC 1987 Section 28-1.5 (Living Wage Ordinance) Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   City of Santa Fe, Living Wage to Increase 5.11% to $12.95 (news release, 2022-02-19) Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   City of Santa Fe, Santa Fe workers to see living wage raise beginning March 1, 2023 Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   City of Santa Fe, Santa Fe workers to see living wage raise beginning March 1, 2024 Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   City of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Living Wage Increases to $15.00 per Hour Checked Oct 9, 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places and County Balances in New Mexico (Vintage 2024, sub-est2024_35.csv) Checked Oct 9, 2026

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