El Paso raises city employee minimum to $15.75 an hour, effective Feb. 23, 2025

El Paso City Council on Dec. 17 approved an amendment to the FY2025 budget that raises the city's minimum wage for municipal employees to $15.75 per hour effective Feb. 23, 2025.

The vote was unanimous. Councilmembers and city leadership described the pay increase as both a moral decision and a fiscally prudent investment designed to reduce turnover costs and strengthen the city's ability to recruit and retain staff across departments.

Council members described the measure as the culmination of an initiative that began as a council proposal in 2023 to phase the city's minimum wage to $15 by 2026. Facing improved fiscal projections and after detailed staff modeling of budget impacts, the city accelerated the increase and set the new $15.75 floor to take effect in early 2025.

City staff said roughly 1,489 employees will see increases tied to the new floor. The budget office and human resources prepared multiple pay-compression scenarios and calculated an average annual increase of about $2,969 for affected workers. City staff said the city can absorb the cost in FY2025 under the adopted budget and will account for related compression and departmental impacts in the next budget cycle.

City Manager Dionne Mack and staff thanked council and emphasized the operational benefits of a higher pay floor: improved retention, fewer recruit-and-train cycles and better competitiveness with other public employers in the region, including the county. Workforce development partners also publicly endorsed the move.

Public commenters who addressed the change praised the council's action and noted the modest size of the increase relative to living costs (staff cited an example figure showing an additional $250 per month in grocery spending as an approximate comparator to the average raise).

Why it matters: The city is a major local employer; setting a higher municipal minimum wage can help stabilize staffing for services from sanitation to parks and public safety support roles. Councilmembers said the move should reduce recruitment costs and help city employees meet basic expenses.

What's next: Staff said departments will manage pay-compression issues and other implementation details in coordination with the budget office. Council and staff discussed continuing to aim for higher wage targets in future budgets, and city leaders framed the adjustment as an incremental step toward long-term compensation goals.

Votes at meeting: Adopted unanimously, Dec. 17, 2024; effective date Feb. 23, 2025.