Paying people who work for the city of Dallas enough to make a decent living just makes sense. We want everyone who works for the city, whether on contract or staff, to be paid fairly and competitively.
That’s why the city’s living wage policy, first introduced in 2015, was grounded in good intentions. It requires that all general service contractors, including janitorial, landscaping and administrative service providers, be paid a minimum wage based on the cost of living in Dallas County. Starting Oct. 1, that wage will increase to $23.06 per hour, up from $22.05 last year.
But, despite good intentions, the way the policy has evolved has created some unintended consequences that need to be revisited.
Some city employees are now paid less than the contractors they work alongside. City employees initially earned 25 cents more per hour than contract workers when the policy began. Now, the proposed minimum wage for city employees is $21.50 per hour — $1.56 less than what contractors will be paid under the living wage policy.
Opinion
If city employees could make more money doing the same work as contractors, what’s stopping them from leaving? And if we lose experienced public servants to contractor jobs, what does that mean for the quality and consistency of city services?
The living wage is derived from the MIT Living Wage Calculator and adjusts annually to reflect increases in the cost of basic needs. However, as inflation and the cost of goods and services continue to rise, MIT’s living wage has experienced substantial increases.
Since the policy was implemented by a 14-1 Dallas City Council vote in 2015, the minimum wage for contractors has increased by 110%, a jump few could have anticipated.
Then-city council member Jennifer Staubach Gates was the only vote against the policy when it came to the council a decade ago. She warned it was irresponsible to set government policy without a concrete idea of the cost, this newspaper reported at the time.
Gates’ concern seems to have played out.
Based on the consumer price index, the average inflation rate from 2015 to now was about 3% a year, which translates to a more than 30% increase over 10 years. A 110% increase in city contractor wages over that same period far outpaces inflation.
The Dallas City Council should look carefully at what it passed back in 2015. Rather than anchoring this policy to a decision made years ago, it should be a continued conversation. A policy that is revisited each year during the budget cycle and takes into account both rising costs of living and the city’s financial reality would be a smart approach.