AUSTIN, Texas — Austin could raise the minimum wage for city employees to $22 after City Council approved a pay raise for the next budget. 

What You Need To Know

  • Austin increased its minimum wage to $15 in 2018

  • Texas adopted the federal minimum wage of $7.25 in 2009 and has yet to raise it

  • Austin City Council passed a resolution directing the city increase minimum wage to $22  

  • The increase, if implemented into the budget, would only apply to city employees and contractors

Living in Texas has become increasingly expensive as costs go up and income is flat. The state hasn’t changed the minimum wage since it implemented the federal hourly pay of $7.25 in 2009.

Austin’s minimum wage changed to $15 an hour in 2018. Data shows a livable wage for a single adult with no kids in Travis County is $18 an hour, but some workers in Austin could be getting a raise.

On Thursday, Austin City Council members passed a resolution directing the city manager to increase the minimum wage to $22 an hour in the next fiscal year.

Hundreds of people came out to support the resolution. Mother of three Josette Ayala was one of them. She works at Austin- Bergstrom International Airport and spent her day off advocating for better pay. 

“The baby’s expensive, plus the rent and gas prices. I have to take them all the way to like their babysitter,” she said. 

Ayala is a member of the union group UNITE HERE Local 23. Organizers say there are around 800 members who work for the City of Austin.

The group is one of several unions that came to Austin City Hall to advocate for higher wages for city workers. AFSCME is another union representing several thousand workers in Travis County and Austin. Group leaders say they estimate there are at least 500 members who make under $22 an hour.

Ayala makes $16.50 an hour, which she says isn’t a livable wage in Austin. 

“We should get the $22 an hour, especially since we work at the airport under pressure, especially since it’s really, really busy there,” Ayala said.

Dozens of workers from EMS, public works, lifeguards and contractors spoke in front of City Council. One sanitation worker said he had to take on extra shifts just to make ends meet while operating a work vehicle without A/C in the summer heat.

“Now when prices and stuff start to elevate our paychecks stay the same,” he said.

The testimony moved Austin Mayor Steve Adler and other council members. 

“As we listen to our neighbors, we all saw the sadness in their eyes and heard the desperation in their voices,” Adler said.

Ayala says this raise will make a vast difference for her families and thousands of other city workers.

“Like a more decent life than just living paycheck by paycheck,” she said.

Even though the city voted in favor of the city wage increase, it isn’t set in stone yet.

The resolution is directing the city manager to implement the $22 minimum wage in the FY 2022/2023 budget. City staff will finalize the budget in July, which will go into effect in October.