Santa Fe, N.M. ? The Santa Fe, N.M., City Council early Thursday approved an ordinance to require businesses and nonprofit organizations to pay workers a minimum $8.50 an hour.

Scores of local governments around the country have set their own minimum wages affecting employers with government contracts, but the Santa Fe ordinance goes farther, covering all workers not directly employed by the government.

The City Council last year agreed to raise the hourly minimum wage for city workers and those of most city contractors to $8.50 an hour. The proposal passed Thursday will include private businesses and nonprofit groups with 25 or more workers, and will start in January.

The state minimum wage is $4.25 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

Several groups, including the Santa Fe Lodgers Assn., are planning to draft court challenges to the ordinance.