Research & Data for Advocates

Local governments are on the front lines for adopting policies aimed at improving health outcomes and reducing health, racial, and gender inequities. But the misuse of state preemption threatens the ability of cities, counties and towns to adopt health- and equity-promoting laws and policies. This resource from the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) and ChangeLab Solutions provides advocates with the research and data they need to document the harmful consequences of preemption and advocate for repealing inequitable preemption laws.

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State preemption of local minimum wage laws prevent communities from improving health outcomes such as decreased adult body weight, increased infant birth weight, declined rates of preterm birth, declined child maltreatment reports, 3 and lower rates of suicide. Read more in Marotta, J, Greene, S. Minimum Wages: What Does the Research Tell Us about the Effectiveness of Local Action?. Urban Institute. January 2019.

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A study assessing how preemption affects birth outcomes – a key indicator of population health – found that state preemption of local minimum wage laws accounted for as much as 3.5% of infant deaths, resulting in more than 600 infant deaths in 2018 alone. The same study also found that the largest metro counties could reduce the infant mortality rate by 1.5 to 1.8% by increasing the minimum wage by one dollar. Read more in Wolf D, Monnat S, Montez JK. Profits protected, lives lost: The preemption tradeoff. 2020 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. October 2020.