City outlines compensation strategy: minimum wage raised, phased pay adjustments planned
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Summary
Human Resources presented a multi-year compensation strategy that raised the city minimum wage to $15.75 in February and proposes a phase‑2 adjustment in January 2026 to raise starting pay on professional/managerial scales and address tenure compression; HR said recruitment and turnover have improved since the increases.
The El Paso city Human Resources Department told City Council on July 7 that the city has already raised its minimum hourly wage substantially and will pursue a phased plan to make pay more competitive across other staff categories.
Chief Human Resources Officer Mary Wiggins said the city raised its minimum wage from about $10.36 in 2021 to $15.75 in February 2025, a 52% increase, and presented the second phase of a multi-year compensation strategy to raise starting pay for professional and managerial (PM) positions and address pay compression between newer and tenured staff.
Why it matters: the city said pay increases are the largest driver of the FY2026 spending proposal and are intended to improve recruitment and retention for a city that has experienced high vacancies since the pandemic.
What HR proposed and why - Phase 1 (already implemented): general-services (entry-level) pay plan updated and minimum wage raised to $15.75, affecting some 3,500 employees. - Phase 2 (proposed effective January 2026): raise the PM starting salary (proposed from $20.85 to $23.00) and implement tenure-based adjustments to reduce compression so longer-serving employees progress toward market-aligned pay. Projected cost for Phase 2 was presented at about $3.1 million. - Phase 3 (future): additional adjustments, including review of executive and other pay bands.
Recruitment and turnover impacts: Wiggins reported a 49% increase in monthly recruitments for comparable months after the minimum-wage increase and said turnover has declined—civilians dropped 43% in turnover and uniformed turnover declined by 9% from 2024 to 2025. She also noted more than 1,000 total vacancies remain and a portion of those are unfunded positions created during pandemic-era staffing shifts.
Benefits and health costs: the city projects roughly $66.7 million in medical and pharmacy costs for FY2025; employee premium contributions cover part of that. Wiggins said the city has not raised employee health premiums since 2020 and does not plan to raise them for FY2026.
Operational notes: HR said it uses comparator cities and market data to set pay ranges and that the phase approach spreads cost over multiple years to address internal equity, external competitiveness and budget constraints. The department also highlighted workforce-development programs, a new Center for Opportunity Youth in the library system and other training initiatives as part of workforce strategy.
Ending: Wiggins told council she will return with implementation details and that staff will coordinate follow-up on recruitment, classifications and impacts to individual departments as phase 2 is rolled out.