The nascent push by cities to raise their minimum wage is meeting resistance in a growing number of state capitols, opening a new front in the battle over the pay floor for the nation’s lowest-paid workers.
Cities including Los Angeles, St. Louis and Birmingham, Ala., have set local minimum wages, arguing the federal and state floors are too low for many workers in more urban areas. But states are moving to strip cities of the power to establish their own rates, citing businesses’ concerns over a patchwork of wage levels and the potential for higher city wages to affect pay statewide.
“It is not an us versus them scenario. It is a state issue,” said Alabama state Rep. David Faulkner, a Republican, who introduced a measure to prohibit cities from setting a minimum wage. “I don’t believe anyone anticipated cities would start introducing their own minimum wages.”
For much of its 75-year history, the minimum wage was determined by the federal government. But as increases in the federal wage have stalled, first states, and more recently cities, have started to set higher salary floors to keep pace with inflation. The fights are pitting Republicans, who control a majority of state capitols, against Democrats and allies in organized labor who dominate politics in many urban areas.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/st...ge-boosts-1443203556

