When the Michigan state legislature passed House Bill 4052 (2015), nicknamed the “Death Star Bill,” it preempted local governments from implementing a range of policies that would benefit workers, including minimum wages, fair scheduling regulations, paid leave mandates, and prevailing wage laws. Fair scheduling laws would have benefited 38,702 retail and food service workers in Detroit, 77% of which are Black. Read more from Wolfe, J, Hickey, S, Kamper, D, Cooper, D. Preempting progress in the heartland: State lawmakers in the Midwest prevent shared prosperity and racial, gender, and immigrant justice by interfering in local policymaking. Economic Policy Institute. October 2021. https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-midwest/.
When the Missouri and Iowa state legislatures preempted minimum wage increases in Kansas City, St. Louis, and various Iowa counties, they denied pay raises to hundreds of thousands of workers, a greater proportion of which are women or workers of color. Read more from Wolfe, J, Hickey, S, Kamper, D, Cooper, D. Preempting progress in the heartland: State lawmakers in the Midwest prevent shared prosperity and racial, gender, and immigrant justice by interfering in local policymaking. Economic Policy Institute. October 2021. https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-midwest/.
The abuse of preemption that has suppressed communities of color in the Midwest has its roots in the segregation policies implemented in response to the Great Migration. Research shows that the abuse of state preemption in the Midwest is also widespread, second only to the South. State lawmakers in the Midwest, who are majority white and male, have used preemption to deny local governments the ability to improve job quality and housing stability through minimum wage increases, fair scheduling laws, and paid leave requirements. These preemptive laws disproportionately affect people of color, women, immigrants, and workers who are paid low wages. Read more from Wolfe, J, Hickey, S, Kamper, D, Cooper, D. Preempting progress in the heartland: State lawmakers in the Midwest prevent shared prosperity and racial, gender, and immigrant justice by interfering in local policymaking. Economic Policy Institute. October 2021. https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-midwest/.
When the Alabama state legislature preempted a minimum wage increase in Birmingham, Alabama, they denied pay raises to an estimated 65,000 low-wage workers, disproportionately harming Black people and women. Read more from Blair H, Cooper D, Wolfe J, Worker J. Preempting progress: State interference in local policymaking prevents people of color, women, and low-income workers from making ends meet in the South. Economic Policy Institute. September 2020. https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-south.
Research shows that the abuse of state preemption is particularly prevalent in the South, where preemption is often a continuation of “state-sanctioned policies and practices rooted in racism and designed to uphold white supremacy” by suppressing the political power of communities of color. Time and time again, overwhelmingly white, male, and conservative state legislatures have blocked the ability of local communities – often Black and Brown communities – from responding to the needs and values of their residents. These communities have been prevented from enacting policies on a multitude of work-related issues, such as minimum wages, fair scheduling laws, paid leave programs, local hire laws, prevailing wage laws, and other workplace protections. Read more from Blair H, Cooper D, Wolfe J, Worker J. Preempting progress: State interference in local policymaking prevents people of color, women, and low-income workers from making ends meet in the South. Economic Policy Institute. September 2020. https://www.epi.org/publication/preemption-in-the-south.
A report examining minimum wage laws found that state preemption of previously enacted minimum wage laws in 12 cities and counties affected nearly 346,000 workers and resulted in nearly $1.5 billion of lost income per year. These preemption laws disproportionately harmed women, people of color, and communities with high rates of poverty. Read more from Laura Huizar and Yannet Lathrop. Fighting Wage Preemption: How Workers Have Lost Billions in Wages and How We Can Restore Local Democracy. National Employment Law Project. July 2019. https://s27147.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Fighting-Wage-Preemption-Report-7-19.pdf.
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 from Wolf D, Monnat S, Montez JK. Profits protected, lives lost: The preemption tradeoff. 2020 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. October 2020. https://apha.confex.com/apha/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/467648.
State preemption of local minimum wage laws prevent communities from improving health outcomes such as decreased adult body weight, increased infant birth weight, decreased rates of preterm birth, decreased child maltreatment reports, and lower rates of suicide. Read more from Marotta, J, Greene, S. Minimum Wages: What Does the Research Tell Us about the Effectiveness of Local Action?. Urban Institute. January 2019. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/minimum-wages-what-does-research-tell-us-about-effectiveness-local-action.
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 from Wolf D, Monnat S, Montez JK. Profits protected, lives lost: The preemption tradeoff. 2020 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. October 2020. https://apha.confex.com/apha/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/467648.