After almost 8 hours of debate, on March 2, 2017, the Minnesota House passed a new bill, the Uniform State Labor Standards Act 76-53, also known as the “preemption” bill (because the idea is to preempt – overrule – numerous local laws with a single state law). As I mentioned in my earlier post, this bill seeks to prohibit cities from adopting ordinances which requires employers to pay employees a higher wage than state minimum wage; mandating paid or unpaid leave; mandating certain scheduling of work time; and providing other certain benefits. The purpose of the bill is to address the concerns of multi-location employers, and the administrative hassles with not only complying with various states’ laws, but local ordinances as well.

The bill would not prohibit local governments from setting their own employees’ wages, benefits, etc., or mandating the same when a private employer works on a local government project (contract) or receives local government funds and subsidies. Today, March 6, 2017, the House bill was received by the Minnesota Senate and was introduced and first read. The companion bill to the House’s HF600 is SF580. What’s next? Well, according to KSTP, Governor Mark Dayton is apparently not a supporter of this bill in its current form, so unless changes are made, he has indicated he’s like to veto it. So, this could all be much ado about nothing.