📰 What Happened: Santa Fe’s City Council passed an ordinance raising the minimum wage to $17.50 by 2027 and, more significantly, adopted a novel calculation method that considers both the Consumer Price Index and local rents. City employees will see the increase by 2026, and no worker exemptions were included.

🔍 A Closer Look: Experts say this hybrid wage index, factoring in fair market rents, directly addresses Santa Fe’s unaffordable housing costs. With median home prices at $600,000 and post-pandemic rents soaring, local leaders argue CPI-only formulas are inadequate. Supporters say the new model better reflects the real costs of living.

🧠 Why It Matters: This policy shift could become a model for other high-cost cities, too. By acknowledging rent as a central affordability metric, Santa Fe is testing a wage-setting precedent that could recalibrate local economic equity strategies and reshape how urban policymakers define a “living wage.”