Last week,
the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a ruling that upheld the City of
Minneapolis’s $15 per hour minimum wage ordinance. Graco, Inc. sued the City
over the ordinance back in 2017, arguing that the state of Minnesota’s lower
minimum wage law preempted the Minneapolis ordinance and seeking a permanent
injunction against the ordinance’s enforcement. In a unanimous
decision issued last Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the
state legislature did not intend to occupy the field of minimum-wage rates. The
Court also held that the City ordinance was valid, because it does not prevent
employers from also complying with the lower state minimum wage. In other
words, the state law sets a minimum wage floor for employers, but does not set
a ceiling on the hourly rate that employers might be required to pay.
In addition
to validating the Minneapolis ordinance, the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision
leaves open the possibility that other municipalities in Minnesota will enact
their own minimum wage requirements, joining a growing trend of municipal laws
across the country. Currently, over 50 counties and cities have minimum wage
laws, including Saint Paul, MN, Los Angeles, CA and many other cities in
California, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C.
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