NM workers to petition for minimum wage hike

New Mexico workers to petition governor to sign minimum wage hike bill

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- A group called Working America says it will be in Santa Fe Monday to try and persuade New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez to sign a minimum wage increase.

The group says it will deliver thousands of photo petitions and petition signatures to the governor's office in support of a just-passed Senate Bill to increase the state's minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 an hour.

Martinez has said she opposes the bill because it would make the state's minimum wage the fourth highest in the nation. She says she told lawmakers she would support raising the minimum wage to $7.80 an hour, the same as Arizona, but that the full dollar-an-hour increase was simply unsustainable.