Dive Summary:

• The mayor and City Council members in Dallas are calling for raises to about 200 sanitation employees who collect waste and recyclables in the city.
• Workers are currently paid around minimum wage and a raise could be implemented by altering contracts or by changing their employment status from contract workers to city employees.
• The changes come with a price tag of around $3.2 million, which could be collected through a sanitation fee increase or cuts made in the general budget.

From the article:

The issue has been building for years. In the past, however, a majority of council members opposed hiring the workers.

Dallas has a moral obligation to improve the pay of contract sanitation workers by putting them on the city payroll, Mayor Mike Rawlings said Tuesday.

The contract workers aren’t the only ones who might get a bump in pay. The proposed budget includes a pay hike for police and firefighters