Nebraska AG sues city of Lincoln over minimum wage rule at odds with state law

LINCOLN — Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilger announced Thursday he is suing the city of Lincoln over its recently passed minimum wage rule that set a different rate than the state’s. 

Hilger said the ordinance violates state law and that the city is out of step with its authority. The attorney general argues in a press release that Lincoln’s “unconstitutional ordinance will inevitably cause the cost of goods and services made with Lincoln labor to increase across the state.” 

Lincoln City Council approved an ordinance in May to maintain a $15 minimum wage for all workers and allow higher annual increases in line with a 2022 statewide ballot measure voters overwhelmingly approved. The Legislature passed a law this year that weakened the voter-approved increases, allowing employers to pay 14-and 15-year-olds $13.50 an hour, and makes a 90 day training period for 16 through 19 years-olds to be paid that  lower rate. The state law also caps the yearly increase to 1.75% per year instead of a cost-of-living index.

“They are not small states unto themselves,” Hilger said of Lincoln and other cities that may be looking to chart their own course. They ultimately are inferior political subdivisions that are inferior to the state of Nebraska.” 

Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said in a statement the city had not seen Hilger’s lawsuit but that their legal team would review it once that happens. 

“In the meantime, Lincoln’s local government remains focused on advancing our community members’ economic security,” Gaylor Baird said. “The City Council’s legislation to honor the voter-approved minimum wage changes does just that.”

Some Lincoln City Council and Omaha officials said that they wanted to restore that minimum wage from the 2022 ballot measure because Nebraska voters have overwhelmingly supported it.

Hilger said he hopes to get a ruling in his favor before the Omaha City Council votes in July on its own minimum wage proposal that would keep the minimum wage in the city at $15 an hour for all workers.

“My hope is that we’ll be successful at the district court level with the court, and that Omaha will not decide to do what Lincoln did,” Hilgers said. 

Lincoln’s minimum wage ordinance is set to go into effect next month.