Preemption of Minimum Wage
This is the latest in a series of LSSC toolkits aimed at providing a one-stop-shop for all of the messaging, media, legal, and research resources associated with individual issue areas that are commonly preempted. Click here to view them all.
This document was last updated in April 2022.
Messaging 101
State legislatures in 25 states around the country have blocked cities and counties from passing their own minimum wage laws. That means local governments are left without the power to address the needs of working people or improve the economies of their communities. By preempting a city’s power to increase wages and failing to raise the minimum wage at the state level, state lawmakers have made it difficult for workers in the lowest-paying jobs to support their families.
Low wages hurt all workers and are particularly harmful to Black workers and other workers of color, especially women of color, who make up a disproportionate share of workers who are severely underpaid.
Workers in expensive cities and counties are facing especially difficult economic challenges due to a higher cost of living. Localities must be able to respond to the unique needs of workers who cannot survive on the federal or state minimum wage.
Economic evidence shows that a city or county that adopts a higher local minimum wage does not become “less competitive” with surrounding areas, a frequent claim by proponents of preemption.
Most minimum wage preemption laws have been pushed and adopted by largely conservative state legislatures in recent years in response to pressure from big business, which generally opposes minimum wage increases.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the source of much conservative and preemption legislation, has accelerated the enactment of their anti-regulatory agenda with template bills like the Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act, first introduced in 2002, which prevented localities from setting a minimum wage. Now ALEC is pushing the Employment Mandate Preemption bill, an all-encompassing preemption bill that prohibits localities from regulating almost anything related to conditions of employment.
Despite the success of corporate interests and their allies in state legislatures, workers and local communities are now reclaiming their power.
Colorado, for example, has repealed its minimum wage preemption law and allowed communities to use their local democratic process to approve the pro-worker policies that they need.
According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), since the Fight for $15 was launched by striking fast food workers in 2012, states representing approximately 40 percent of the U.S. workforce have approved raising their minimum wages to $15 an hour.
Media Examples
Florida lawmakers consider banning cities, counties from setting local minimum wages | Tallahassee Democrat, 1/26/22
Senate passes bill keeping cities, counties from raising minimum wage, other labor standards | Charleston Gazette-Mail, 3/17/21
A Bottom-Up Solution for America’s Minimum-Wage Mandates: Counties | Governing, 2/16/21
State lawmakers introduce bill to repeal Florida’s local minimum wage, earned sick time preemption law | ABC Tallahassee, 1/14/21
Legal Resources
Laura Huizar and Jared Make, Labor Preemption | Local Power and Politics Review, November 2020
Laura Huizar and Yannet Lathrop, Fighting Wage Preemption: How Workers Have Lost Billions in Wages and How We Can Restore Local Democracy | National Employment Law Project, July 2019
Research Resources
Effects of US state preemption laws on infant mortality | Preventive Medicine, April 2021
Effects of increased minimum wages by unemployment rate on suicide in the USA | Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, January 2020
Minimum Wages: What Does the Research Tell Us about the Effectiveness of Local Action? | Urban Institute, January 2019