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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGovernor Bans Minimum Wage Increases And Paid Sick Leave Laws
By Bryce Covert
At a time when many states and cities are working passing minimum wage increases, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has gone in the opposite direction and signed a law banning cities from passing higher wages. The bill also bans them from enacting paid sick days or vacation requirements.
The law will stymie the efforts of activists in Oklahoma City, where a labor federation has led the push on a petition to raise the citys minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The states current minimum has been set at the federal level of $7.25. In 2012, 64,000 workers in the state earned $7.25 an hour or less, making up 7.2 percent of all hourly workers, a larger share than the 4.7 percent figure for the country as a whole.
Fallin said she signed the bill out of the worry that higher local minimum wages would drive businesses to other communities and states, and would raise prices for consumers. She also argued that most minimum wage workers are young, single people working part-time or entry level jobs and that many are high school or college students living with their parents in middle-class families. She warned that increasing the minimum wage would require businesses to fire many of those part-time workers and harm job creation.
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The ban on paid sick days is also not new. While seven American cities and one state have passed paid sick leave requirements, ten states Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin have banned local efforts, with seven of those passing over the last year, and many other states have considered similar bills. Yet there is no evidence to support the idea that these requirements hurt businesses or job growth.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/15/3426716/oklahoma-ban-minimum-wage-paid-sick-leave/
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)AleksS
(1,665 posts)Yeah, we went through that in WI, though our (R) legislature and gov did it piecemeal.
WI Republicans: "We got your local control right here!"
They're willing to make any sacrifices to their "job creator" golden idols. As long as it's the plebes, and not the rulers, that actually make the sacrifice.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)not help my campaigns if I increase wages.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,355 posts)Except when they're not.
Heaven forfend that business be forced to adopt policies that allow their employees some decent standard of living and dignity, right?
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Is this just for government employees?
(Not that it's right. It's gross.)
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Wait... I live in Tennessee and have paid sick leave."
...to expand paid sick leave/vacation, making them mandatory, and increase the minimum wage.
I suspect that if no one had paid sick leave of vacation time, few people would live there.