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# Santa Monica Council Weighs $11.50 Living Wage Amid Budget Crunch
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/060104-story/
- Published: 2004-06-01T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:27:45.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

While pouring over the upcoming year’s $377 million budget, the Santa Monica City Council this week noticed a key expense missing: The living wage.

Council members want to mandate that City Hall workers make a minimum of $11.50 an hour, and that would include all contractors who have $25,000 projects or more with the city. The additional cost to City Hall would surpass $1 million.

City officials already have cut $2 million from the budget and found ways to increase revenues to close a $4 million budget shortfall. Belt tightening is expected for a couple of more years.

So, this week Q-Line wants to know, “Do you think City Hall should pursue a living wage for its employees despite its budget crunch? Why or why not?”

Call (310) 285-8106 with your responses before Friday at 5 p.m. We’ll print them in the weekend edition. Please limit your comments to a minute or less. It might help to think first about the wording of your response.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 1, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)