Minimum wage increase rejected

Lawmakers rejected a measure March 31 that would have increased Nebraska’s minimum wage for certain workers.

As introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, LB943 would have increased the minimum wage for all workers incrementally from $7.25 per hour to $9.00 by 2017.

Nordquist said Nebraska ranks 13th in the nation for the highest percentage of workers earning the minimum wage in spite of the state’s low unemployment rate. If the minimum wage were indexed for inflation, he said, it currently would be $10.75.

“The purpose of this bill is to make sure hard work pays in Nebraska,” he said.

Omaha Sen. Burke Harr supported the bill, saying it would impact families working to better their children’s lives. He said one-third of minimum wage workers in Nebraska are raising a child and cannot make ends meet. As a result, he said, low-wage workers must rely on public assistance.

“If you want to get people off of reliance on government, raise the minimum wage,” Harr said.

A Business and Labor Committee amendment would have added provisions of LB947, originally introduced by Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop. The amendment would increase the tip earner minimum wage from $2.13 to $3.00 in 2014. In each year thereafter, the wage would increase the lesser of 95 cents or the amount necessary to equal 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

“Neither the federal nor state government has increased the tip earner minimum wage rate since 1991,” Lathrop said.

The committee amendment failed on a 24-11 vote, one vote short of the number needed for adoption.

An amendment to the committee amendment, offered by Nordquist, would have exempted businesses with annual gross sales of less than $500,000. Nordquist said the amendment would add to existing exemptions to the state minimum wage law and was offered as a concession to senators concerned about the impact on small businesses of raising the minimum wage. The amendment failed on a 21-16 vote.

Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher then offered an amendment that would have exempted businesses with gross income in excess of $10 million dollars and would have applied the minimum wage increase only to individuals at a qualifying business with at least 24 consecutive months of employment.

Schumacher said the amendment would result in the bill applying to very few businesses in Nebraska and was an attempt to see if lawmakers were genuinely interested in balancing the interests of small business with the needs of the working poor.

“We’ve got a job to try and reconcile those particular things,” he said. “What we’re doing here is to try and do a small modicum of justice.”

The amendment failed on a 24-8 vote and the vote to advance LB943 to select file failed 20-20.