Santa Fe resident Letitia Araiza works two jobs: one in the morning at McDonald’s, where she makes $15.50 an hour, and one in the evening at an Italian restaurant, making $3.50 an hour plus tips.

All of her income goes to pay rent, she said, while her husband’s earnings cover the family’s other expenses.

She hopes to see the city enact a proposal to raise Santa Fe’s minimum wage to $17.50 an hour in 2027 from the current rate of $15, which might make it possible for her to quit one of her jobs and spend more time with her four children, one of whom has autism.

“We work really hard to live well, but right now, we are not living well,” Araiza said in Spanish through an interpreter during a Friday interview. “We are surviving.”

Araiza, a member of the immigrant rights group Somos Un Puebl

See Full Page