Fort Worth council members want $20 minimum wage for city workers. It will cost millions
At least four members of the Fort Worth City Council want the city to raise its employee minimum wage to $20 per hour.
Council members Jared Williams, Chris Nettles, Elizabeth Beck and Jeanette Martinez voiced their support for the move at a budget work session Tuesday.
They argued it is a small step toward making sure city employees can afford to live in Fort Worth.
Williams, who works as a vice president for the Tarrant Area Food Bank, said he’s seen firsthand the struggles Fort Worth families are experiencing trying to making ends meet.
“Some of those folks are city employees and that’s not OK,” Williams said, speaking at a small gathering of labor organizers ahead of Tuesday’s work session.
The raise would be a nearly 30% increase from the city’s minimum of $15.45 per hour, and could increase the wages of roughly 10% of the city’s workforce. Library workers, community center employees, maintenance workers and gardeners are just a few of the positions that could see pay increased.
The move would bring the city’s minimum closer to the $22.10 per hour living wage for Tarrant County, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The study defined a living wage as being what one full-time worker needs to make on an hourly basis to cover their basic needs while still being self-sufficient.
However, raising the city’s minimum wage could cost as much as $117.5 million before factoring in pension and health care costs, city Human Resources Director Dianna Giordano told the council.
That includes $5.3 million to raise the wages of employees making less than $20 per hour, and $112.2 million to raise the wages of employees with more experience or tenure to avoid diluting their salaries with the minimum wage increase.
That’s nearly double the amount that would have been raised by the proposed street maintenance fee that was pulled by city staff in May.
“We all agree that our city employees are valued, and that value should reflect in their compensation,” said District 2 council member Carlos Flores.
“Our challenge is find exactly what that compensation figure is and balance that against our budget,” Flores said.
The city is proposing a 4% increase of the minimum wage, raising it to $16.07 per hour. This would mirror the average performance-based increase handed out across city departments in 2022.
City staff are also proposing doing a comprehensive wage study to figure out exactly what it should be paying entry level employees as well as those with more experience, Giordano said.
While District 8 council member Chris Nettles didn’t oppose the study, he argued the city doesn’t need a study to know it should be paying its employees more.
Nettles advocated for including the $5.3 million in the 2025 budget while finding other efficiencies in the budget to account for the $112.2 million.
The city is in the early stages of its budget planning process. Final property valuations aren’t expected until late July, and the city anticipates needing to make cuts, said Deputy City Manager Mark McDaniel, speaking at Tuesday’s meeting.
The council will need to make hard decisions this budget year by balancing the proposed wage increase against a number of other needs, Mayor Mattie Parker said Tuesday.
She noted the several council members have asked for more information about the impact of the wage increase, and said the council would address the issue when it reconvenes after the July break.
