Small business is under assault at all levels of government—at the federal, state and local level. Labor activists are aggressively pushing for a $15.00 per hour minimum wage, paid sick leave and other burdensome regulatory requirements. And they are increasingly looking to impose those requirements through municipal ordinance where their efforts have stalled at the state and federal levels.
Accordingly, NFIB has been working with our allies to challenge these municipal mandates in the courts. For example, we succeeded in obtaining a judgment striking down the City of St. Louis’ minimum wage ordinance. And that case is currently on appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Likewise NFIB Legal Center filed an amicus brief in the Michigan Supreme Court last year in support of the Associated Builders and Contractor’s challenge to an ordinance enacted by the City of Lansing, which imposes burdens on contractors working in the City. Though the Michigan Supreme Court ended-up siding with the City in that case, NFIB was ultimately successful in pushing through legislation to prevent municipalities from imposing special burdens on employers—thus establishing a policy of unified business regulation throughout Michigan.
And we’re continuing these efforts in other states—most recently in Pennsylvania, where NFIB Legal Center led a coalition in an amicus filing challenging the City of Pittsburgh’s paid sick leave ordinance. Pennsylvania statutes expressly prohibit municipalities from imposing burdens on employers, but in this case the City of Pittsburgh claims a special exception for regulations aimed at promoting “public health.” Yet as we pointed out in our brief, that exception would swallow the rule because all economic regulation may be said to have some tangential effect on public health. Accordingly, we maintain that the Pennsylvania courts should strictly enforce state law forbidding municipal regulation of business.
Of course each state varies in what is and is not allowed at the municipal level. It all depends on what statutes the state legislature has enacted and whether—or to what extent—the State Constitution cabins home rule powers. But in any event, NFIB will continue fighting back against efforts to regulate labor and employment standards at the local level because that’s just bad public policy. As we’ve argued in these cases, states that allow balkanization of these standards across many fragmented jurisdictions are only making it harder to do business. That makes the state less attractive for potential business investments, and makes it harder to survive as a mom-and-pop company.
