States rein in cities raising minimum wage

The Republican Party's commitment to federalism has taken an interesting new turn: State governments under GOP control have been passing legislation to prohibit cities and counties from adopting minimum wages that would rise above the state level.

States have long been able to set their minimum wages above the federal rate, currently $7.25 an hour, and 29 currently do that, as does the District of Columbia. In recent years, when minimum wage activists have been unable to get statehouses to go along with increases, they have turned to local governments and had some notable successes. That has prompted some GOP-led states to nullify those efforts.

In mid-May, the Missouri legislature passed a bill that would override a St. Louis ordinance adopted last year that set the city's minimum wage at $10, well above the state rate of $7.70. Republican Gov. Eric Greitens was expected to sign it.

Republicans have said the pre-emption was necessary because the local rates were too disruptive for the state economy. "Fundamentally, we need to have a uniform, consistent minimum wage across the state so that we don't pit communities against each other," Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Jefferson City, told reporters May 12 after the bill passed.

Aparna Mathur, economic policy scholar for the free-market American Enterprise Institute, said allowing multiple rates in a state can create serious problems for businesses. "There are large compliance costs with having to deal with a myriad of regulations across states and now across localities. For many businesses, the minimum wage hike in their state will already be a cost ... but now dealing with different minimum wages in different parts of the state (and across the country) imposes an additional cost," she wrote in an email.