Meow Wolf raises minimum wage to $17 an hour
Meow Wolf raises minimum wage to $17 an hour
- May 8, 2019 Updated May 8, 2019
Meow Wolf — the Santa Fe-based arts collective turned immersive arts entertainment phenomenon — announced Wednesday it is increasing the minimum wage for its Santa Fe workers to $17 per hour, effective immediately.
Co-founder and CEO Vince Kadlubek said the raise will affect 15 percent of the company’s workers who previously were earning lower pay. With a workforce of 425 employees in Santa Fe, Meow Wolf has become one of the city’s largest private employers.
The new minimum wage applies to all hourly employees, including seasonal full-time and part-time employees, the company said in a news release.
“Sharing success is one of our core ideologies,” Kadlubek said the statement. “We want to reward those who have worked hard to help us continue to grow.”
The $17 per hour offered at Meow Wolf is equivalent to a full-time salary of about $35,360 a year. The company had been committed to a $15 minimum before this, Kadlubek said.
Even higher than the top citywide minimum wages in the U.S. of $16.09 per hour in SeaTac, Wash., and $15 in New York City, the base pay at Meow Wolf is $5.20 higher than the minimum wage of $11.80 per hour in both the city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County. It’s nearly $10 higher than the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and the state’s rate of $7.50 an hour.
Under legislation signed into law last month, New Mexico’s hourly minimum is set to increase to $9 on Jan. 1, 2020, and will increase annually until it reaches $12 in 2023. That’s a slower pace than Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and some lawmakers had hoped; they proposed raising New Mexico’s minimum wage to $12 by 2021. Others called for even higher increases.
After weeks of debate, lawmakers reached a late-night compromise, approving the first minimum wage increase for the state in a decade.
“This is going to give hope and improve the quality of life” for New Mexicans at the bottom of the pay scale, the governor said when she signed the legislation.
Kadlubek said Wednesday he chose a minimum wage of $17 per hour for Meow Wolf workers because he regards it as “a true living wage, and especially in Santa Fe.”
“Due to our housing crisis here in Santa Fe, the cost of living has gone up, and we believe employers should respond to that,” he said.
The higher wage is part of the homegrown company’s effort to draw more skilled workers — and keep them in Santa Fe.
Marianne Palacios, Meow Wolf’s vice president of human resources, said, “Meow Wolf is proud of its Santa Fe and New Mexico origins. Because of the wage increase, we can both stay true to our community and also attract new talent from all over the country.”
Meow Wolf owns and operates an interactive, multidimensional mystery exhibit called The House of Eternal Return on Rufina Circle that is also home to a music venue, bar and outdoor dining scene. The exhibit, which opened in March 2016, logged 100,000 visits in its first two months and celebrated its millionth visitor in July.
The company is building new attractions in Las Vegas, Nev.; Washington, D.C.; Phoenix; and Denver. It also opened a new ride last month at the Elitch Gardens amusement park in Denver. The ride, Kaleidoscape, is not a roller coaster, the park says on its website: “It’s a thrill ride for the mind” that “takes passengers on an interactive, artist-driven journey.”
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