For the working people of state government, it’s hard to believe Michelle Lujan Grisham is a Democrat.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham pays more than 4,000 employees very low wages – under the $15/hour minimum wage that President Joe Biden continues to describe as a”poverty wage.”

In early January, Governor Lujan Grisham dashed any hopes of the rank and file employees who carry out the work of her administration for a fair and long overdue pay raise.

Her press secretary, Nora Meyers Sackett, in dismissing questions about giving public employees a pay raise, claimed there were more important things to spend the money on.

According to Meyers Sackett, the Governor was focused “on preserving and enhancing key investments in programs that make a difference for New Mexicans.”

Apparently, to the Governor, state and school employees were not a necessary investment.

But later in January, The Candle (a Roundhouse Movidas companion publication) broke a story revealing the Governor had quietly given members of her personal staff big pay raises of $7,000 to $18,000, even as she was revoking a raise to all state employees due to COVID-1 induced austerity.

A few days after The Candle published its story about Lujan Grisham’s personal team getting favored treatment, the Governor’s press team was forced to fess up to other news organizations, what she refused to acknowledge to The Candle.

This time Meyers Sackett was tasked with disseminating another insult to the state employees who carried out the day to day work of addressing COVID-19, by suggesting the Governor’s ““staff play a critical role in the operation of the state’s executive branch and the governance of the state – all of which is amplified during a yearlong crisis,” Sackett said. “They coordinate state departments and agencies, all of whom operate under the executive’s leadership, as outlined by the state Constitution.”“ (Albuquerque Journal)

And just last week when Roundhouse Movidas revealed another huge pay raise for Lujan Grisham’s Environment Secretary James Kenney, Meyers Sackett suggested it was because he did the work.

She told Journal reporter Dan McKay, ““…the Environment Department “has been tasked with ensuring the health and safety of workers and customers statewide, including carrying out tens of thousands of rapid responses, running the state’s wastewater surveillance testing program, and coordinating with businesses to ensure safe practices and establish mobile testing programs, all of which Secretary Kenney coordinated and executed.”

What about all those employees that really did the work?

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham pays more than 4,000 employees very low wages – under the $15/hour minimum wage that President Joe Biden continues to describe as a”poverty wage.”

The pay inequities don’t end there though.

Even those bargaining unit employees fortunate to be paid more than a ‘poverty wage’ have been denied a simple modest cost of living raise by a Democratic politician who claims her executive staff deserve pay raises as high as 50% more than when they were hired.

Her so-called labor policy advisor tops the list of percentage wage increases.

Diego Arencon has received pay raises totaling $45,000.

The women and men cleaning the state’s offices will get a 1.5% raise in July – less than $375 for the year, or a raise of about 18 cents an hour.

Arencon, the Governor’s labor advisor, got a raise of about $21/hour.

And Arencon is not alone. Look at the table at the end of this article.

For the working people of state government, it’s hard to believe this Governor is a Democrat.

In the days ahead, the Governor could change that impression by ordering her team to address the pay inequities in Collective Bargaining Agreement Wage negotiations with the leaders of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Communications Workers of America, the American Federation of Teachers and other labor unions who represent public employees working for the state.

And in those negotiations, Michelle Lujan Grisham’s “labor policy advisor” needs to step up and advocate for the interests of all employees, not just himself.