Why Minneapolis passed a wage-theft ordinance that essentially duplicates state law
The Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that establishes the city’s own set of rules to crack down on wage theft and force employers to be transparent with payrolls. The ordinance is similar to a state law that went into effect last month.
On Thursday morning, the 13-member council rewrote city code to give attorneys within the city’s Department of Civil Rights authority to enforce the municipal law against wage theft — which is when employers don’t pay employees, or pay them less than guaranteed — and require employers to provide earnings statements on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, a larger-scale effort is beginning within the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and the attorney general’s office. Last month, Gov. Tim Walz signed a bipartisan bill to establish protections for workers that substantially grow the state’s resources for investigating allegations of wage theft — guidelines that are almost identical to the Minneapolis ordinance. Supporters call the new policies necessary considering the pervasiveness of underpayment that disproportionately affects Minnesota’s communities of color and immigrants.
But while labor and social-justice advocates celebrate the new efforts, which they describe as the toughest of their kind in the country, this question remains: Why is it necessary for Minneapolis to pass an ordinance that basically duplicates state law?
Read more: https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2019/08/why-minneapolis-passed-a-wage-theft-ordinance-that-essentially-duplicates-state-law/
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