New York Times: NY Times: When a State Balks at a City’s Minimum Wage

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Veronica Roscoe, who earns $7.75 an hour working at a Burger King here, thought last August that she had won: This city had become the first in the South to approve a local minimum wage.

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But that was before the Alabama Legislature met, and before a showdown between state lawmakers and city leaders about who should have the authority to set wage policy in Birmingham.

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The National Employment Law Project, which supports increasing the minimum wage, said more than a dozen states had effectively prohibited local governments from establishing pay requirements, and that the figure was likely to increase.

“This is the typical playbook,” said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, a senior staff lawyer for the employment law group. “Over the years, it’s really narrowed the field in terms of what localities around the country can do to raise wages.”

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Read the full article at The New York Times.