Aldermen approve $15 an hour minimum wage for full-time city employees

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Activists on Tuesday night spoke out in favor of a $15 an hour minimum wage for city employees. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday approved a $15 an hour minimum wage for all full-time city employees.

Currently, only five full-time city employees earn less than $15 an hour: a customer service representative, a library clerk, two office assistants and a parking maintenance worker. Combined, these five employees’ salaries range from $13.61 an hour to $14.86 an hour, with a total of $9,019.36 required to raise their pay to $15 an hour over the next 52 weeks.


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Data on the employees that got raises

The five employees will now not see previously expected step-related wage raises until they reach the point where they would have hit over $15 an hour. Additionally, the Yager Decker scale, which dictates recommended salary and cost of living steps for city employees, will require reclassification until $15 an hour becomes the new baseline step.

Proposed by Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long, the original proposal would have lifted all city employees above $15 an hour, with the estimated cost of putting the 142 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees below $15 an hour up to that level costing the city $173,364.40.


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Data on the scope of employees in the original resolution.

Long’s resolution cited a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that found an adult with a child would require an hourly income of $30.40 to rise out of poverty levels in Hillsborough County and that it would take 106 hours of work per week at federal minimum wage levels to afford the average one-bedroom apartment found in Manchester.

Tuesday’s resolution passage does not affect Manchester School Department employees such as many paraprofessional educators that currently make under $15 an hour. That change is under the purview of the Manchester Board of School Committee.


 

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.