Austin City Council introduces $22 hourly wage for city employees proposal
Austin City Council member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents District 2, will introduce an item next week at the Austin City Council meeting to increase city employee pay to $22 per hour, a spokesperson for Fuentes confirms.
The decision follows a fraught spring in which lifeguards like Barton Springs' Scott Cobb have fiercely advocated for a pay increase, among other benefits, for current city employees and to recruit new ones. As of last Friday, June 3, Austin Parks & Recreation Department (PARD) was still short more than 400 lifeguards needed to fully open all 34 city pools.
“The lifeguard shortage in Austin speaks both to its rapidly increasing cost of living and the competitive wages other private industries are offering," Fuentes tells MySA in a statement. "With staffing shortages leaving over half of all pools in Austin closed, a substantial and competitive wage increase is needed to close this gap."
Earlier this week, a working group recommended raising the hourly wage for city employees to $22 for fiscal year 2023. The group, which met four times in 2022, recommended that this raise apply to all temporary and permanent city employees regardless of hours worked, except for employees in the summer youth program.
"The $22 per-hour wage proposal I’m introducing next week would provide City of Austin Employees with a path forward to a much-needed wage increase," Fuentes says. "This proposal would work towards a more equitable baseline for city employees and ensure more Austinites can fully enjoy our pools in the future.”
Earlier this year, Cobb met with Fuentes and fellow City Council member Chito Vela regarding their concerns, including raising the minimum wage to $22 per hour.
"I believe that Austin City Council has the opportunity that we should be acting immediately, really, because we have to recruit lifeguards at a liveable wage, and quite frankly, in Austin, it's not $15 per hour anymore," Fuentes told MySA in April.
Following the lifeguards' meeting with Fuentes, PARD raised the starting wage from $15 to $16 per hour, which led to a slight uptick in hiring for the summer. Cobb and others, however, didn't feel like the raise was enough, as the cost of living has sharply increased in Austin, particularly in the housing sector.
"A $22 living wage for all City of Austin employees will ensure Barton Springs and other pools will fully open on time next year and that Austin hires and retains skilled and experienced staff in jobs in all city departments to fully serve the people of Austin," Cobb tells MySA. "A $22 living wage will help lifeguards and other city employees put food on their tables, gas in their cars, and maintain roofs over their heads in a time of skyrocketing living expenses."
The working group found that the cost to raise the wage to $22 will be between $18.2 million and $22.8 million. It also recommended that the city plan to raise the living wage every year, reaching $27 per hour by 2027.