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HOUSE BILL 246
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Patricia Roybal Caballero
AN ACT
RELATING TO LABOR; INCREASING THE MINIMUM WAGE FOR CERTAIN
EMPLOYEES; PROVIDING AN ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT TO THE MINIMUM WAGES
BASED ON INFLATIONARY MEASURES; REPEALING A SECTION OF THE
MINIMUM WAGE ACT.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 50-4-21 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1955,
Chapter 200, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:
"50-4-21. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Minimum Wage Act:
A. "consumer price index" means the consumer price
index, not seasonally adjusted, for all urban consumers, United
States city average for all items, or a successor index, as
published by the United States department of labor for a
twelve-month period ending September 30;
[A.] B. "employ" includes suffer or permit to work;
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[B.] C. "employer" includes any individual,
partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal
representative or organized group of persons employing one or
more employees at any one time, acting directly or indirectly
in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but
shall not include the United States, the state or any political
subdivision of the state; provided, however, that for the
purposes of Subsection A of Section 50-4-22 NMSA 1978,
"employer" includes the state or any political subdivision of
the state; and
[C.] D. "employee" includes an individual employed
by an employer, but shall not include:
(1) an individual employed in a bona fide
executive, administrative or professional capacity and
forepersons, superintendents and supervisors;
[(2) an individual employed by the United
States, the state or any political subdivision of the state;
provided, however, that for the purposes of Subsection A of
Section 50-4-22 NMSA 1978, "employee" includes an individual
employed by the state or any political subdivision of the
state;
(3) an individual engaged in the activities of
an educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organization
where the employer-employee relationship does not, in fact,
exist or where the services rendered to such organizations are
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on a voluntary basis. The employer-employee relationship shall
not be deemed to exist with respect to an individual being
served for purposes of rehabilitation by a charitable or
nonprofit organization, notwithstanding the payment to the
individual of a stipend based upon the value of the work
performed by the individual;
(4)] (2) salespersons or employees compensated
upon piecework, flat rate schedules or commission basis;
[(5) registered apprentices and learners
otherwise provided by law;
(6)] (3) G.I. bill trainees while under
training; or
[(7) seasonal employees of an employer
obtaining and holding a valid certificate issued annually by
the director of the labor relations division of the workforce
solutions department. The certificate shall state the job
designations and total number of employees to be exempted. In
approving or disapproving an application for a certificate of
exemption, the director shall consider the following:
(a) whether such employment shall be at
an educational, charitable or religious youth camp or retreat;
(b) that such employment will be of a
temporary nature;
(c) that the individual will be
furnished room and board in connection with such employment, or
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if the camp or retreat is a day camp or retreat, the individual
will be furnished board in connection with such employment;
(d) the purposes for which the camp or
retreat is operated;
(e) the job classifications for the
positions to be exempted; and
(f) any other factors that the director
deems necessary to consider;
(8)] (4) any employee employed in agriculture
[(a) if the employee is employed by an
employer who did not, during any calendar quarter during the
preceding calendar year, use more than five hundred person-days
of agricultural labor;
(b) if the employee is the parent,
spouse, child or other member of the employer's immediate
family; for the purpose of this subsection, the employer shall
include the principal stockholder of a family corporation;
(c)] if the employee [1) ] is employed as
a hand-harvest laborer and is paid on a piece-rate basis in an
operation that has been, and is customarily and generally
recognized as having been, paid on a piece-rate basis in the
region of employment. [2) commutes daily from the employee's
permanent residence to the farm on which the employee is so
employed; and 3) has been employed in agriculture less than
thirteen weeks during the preceding calendar year;
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(d) if the employee, other than an
employee described in Subparagraph (c) of this paragraph: 1)
is sixteen years of age or under and is employed as a hand-
harvest laborer, is paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation
that has been, and is generally recognized as having been, paid
on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment; 2) is
employed on the same farm as the employee's parent or person
standing in the place of the parent; and 3) is paid at the same
piece-rate as employees over age sixteen are paid on the same
farm; or
(e) if the employee is principally
engaged in the range production of livestock or in milk
production;
(9) an employee engaged in the handling,
drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing or canning of
any agricultural or horticultural commodity in its
unmanufactured state; or
(10) employees of charitable, religious or
nonprofit organizations who reside on the premises of group
homes operated by such charitable, religious or nonprofit
organizations for persons who have a mental, emotional or
developmental disability. ]"
SECTION 2. Section 50-4-22 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1955,
Chapter 200, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:
"50-4-22. MINIMUM WAGES.--
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A. [Except as provided in Subsection C of this
section] On and after January 1, 2026 , an employer shall pay to
an employee a minimum wage rate of
[(1) prior to January 1, 2020, at least seven
dollars fifty cents ($7.50) an hour;
(2) beginning January 1, 2020 and prior to
January 1, 2021, at least nine dollars ($9.00) an hour;
(3) beginning January 1, 2021 and prior to
January 1, 2022, at least ten dollars fifty cents ($10.50) an
hour;
(4) beginning January 1, 2022 and prior to
January 1, 2023, at least eleven dollars fifty cents ($11.50)
an hour; and
(5) on and after January 1, 2023, at least
twelve dollars ($12.00) an hour.
B. An employer furnishing food, utilities, supplies
or housing to an employee who is engaged in agriculture may
deduct the reasonable value of such furnished items from any
wages due to the employee.
C. An employee who customarily and regularly
receives more than thirty dollars ($30.00) a month in tips
shall be paid a minimum hourly wage as follows:
(1) prior to January 1, 2020, at least two
dollars thirteen cents ($2.13) an hour;
(2) beginning January 1, 2020 and prior to
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January 1, 2021, at least two dollars thirty-five cents ($2.35)
an hour;
(3) beginning January 1, 2021 and prior to
January 1, 2022, at least two dollars fifty-five cents ($2.55)
an hour;
(4) beginning January 1, 2022 and prior to
January 1, 2023, at least two dollars eighty cents ($2.80) an
hour;
(5) on and after January 1, 2023, at least
three dollars ($3.00) an hour; and
(6) the employer may consider tips as part of
wages, but the tips combined with the employer's cash wage
shall not equal less than the minimum wage rate as provided in
Subsection A of this section. All tips received by such
employees shall be retained by the employee, except that
nothing in this section shall prohibit the pooling of tips
among wait staff] seventeen dollars ($17.00) an hour adjusted
annually pursuant to the provisions of Subsection C of this
section.
[D.] B. An employee shall not be required to work
more than forty hours in any week of seven days, unless the
employee is paid one and one-half times the employee's regular
hourly rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of forty
hours. For an employee who is paid a fixed salary for
fluctuating hours and who is employed by an employer a majority
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of whose business in New Mexico consists of providing
investigative services to the federal government, the hourly
rate may be calculated in accordance with the provisions of the
federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the regulations
pursuant to that act; provided that in no case shall the hourly
rate be less than the federal minimum wage.
C. On January 1, 2027 and on January 1 of each
successive year, the minimum wage rate shall be adjusted by
multiplying the minimum wage as of January 1, 2026 by a
fraction, the numerator of which is the consumer price index
ending in September of the previous year and the denominator of
which is the consumer price index ending September 2025;
provided that the minimum wage rate shall not be adjusted
downward as a result of a decrease in the consumer price index.
By November 1, 2026 and by November 1 of each successive year,
the workforce solutions department shall post on its website
and otherwise notify employers of the minimum wage for the next
year."
SECTION 3. REPEAL.--Section 50-4-23 NMSA 1978 (being Laws
1967, Chapter 242, Section 1, as amended) is repealed.
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