Serving Austin — how city employees say they would benefit from an increased wage

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Photo courtesy AFSCME.

During the last few years, Austin has emerged as one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Along with a booming population, the city has also experienced a skyrocketing cost of living.

In 2021, the real estate website Zillow named Austin one of the least affordable metro areas in the country. And growth in the Texas capital shows few signs of slowing down.

Meanwhile, city employees say low wages make it difficult to make ends meet.

In June, the Austin City Council directed the city manager to look into the possibility of raising the minimum wage for city employees from $15 to $22 per hour.

The council’s move was in response to testimony from dozens of city employees during a meeting on June 16. Employees stressed that the current minimum wage isn’t enough to live in one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

“Although at the time $15 was a sufficient living wage, we’re in a vastly different community now,” said Fabiola Barreto, a policy coordinator at the Workers Defense Action Fund.

The minimum wage for city employees has been $15 per hour since 2018. In that same year, the median price for a single-family home in Austin was approximately $325,000, according to an Austin Board of Realtors report. Now, the median price is $550,000.

The average monthly bills for Austin residents are 22.2% higher than the national average, according to a study conducted by Doxo, a software company that tracks bills and other expenses.

Carol Guthrie, the business manager for Austin’s American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees trade union, said the increased cost of rent, gas, groceries are having an impact on employee retention.

“Everything is going up, they can’t afford to live in Austin. So if they tried to live outside of Austin, then they can’t afford the gas in the car. So it’s this horrible circle and people are struggling to work for the City of Austin,” Guthrie said.

Eddie Equia, an Austin paramedic, is one of the 6,800 emergency medical service employees for the city who says the department is going through a “historic staffing crisis.”

“It almost seems like every week I hear about somebody new leaving,” Equia said. “I have multiple friends in the department that are considering leaving because we feel we’re not being valued here in the city and we can’t afford to live here anymore,” Equia told the Austin City Council during its June 16 meeting.

Ed Sills, the director of communications for the Texas AFL-CIO, calls the council’s decision “a good goal at the moment,” and said in an interview with The Moody College Courier that Travis county has been “trying to stay on top of this issue.”

“You know, this affects everybody. The wage floor affects everybody in the city, not just the people who are struggling to get to a living wage,” Sills said.

In June, Moody College Courier reporters sat down with city workers to better understand the day-to-day financial pressures of living in an increasingly expensive city.

Read the full story here.