Editorial
Tulsa World
The Legislature and Gov. Mary Fallin did the right thing when they blocked local governments from setting a minimum wage higher than the level set by state law.
The state and federal minimum wage are $7.25 an hour. An Oklahoma City group was pushing an initiative petition seeking to raise that city’s minimum to $10.10 an hour.
The law, signed by Fallin on Monday, seeks to cut short that effort and others by requiring that the state minimum wage supersede any local ordinances.
Generally speaking, we support empowering local government. We’ve spoken out on that cause in the cases of determining school curriculum and regulating tobacco use in public.
But there are good reasons to diverge from that philosophy in this case.
Minimum wage is not a decision suited to local decision-making. That increases the risk of special-interest groups forcing bad policy on local economies. Indeed, this is exactly how we interpret what was happening in Oklahoma City.
Decisions on wage mandates should be made at the state or national level because the repercussions of wage levels go well beyond the local economy.
If Oklahoma City raises its minimum wage and the result is less employment in the state’s largest population center, that increases pressure on the rest of Oklahoma to fund state government through payroll and sales taxes.
Oklahoma’s economy is ill-served by the potential of patchwork on legal wage levels across the map. A state in competition with other states for employers should be able to tell those prospects that there is a single minimum wage level to deal with. A complex wage market is not an advantage in job recruitment.
The state shouldn’t price itself out of the competition for jobs — even low-paying jobs — and neither should it allow any local government to do so. While a metropolis the size of New York City might be able to deal with the self-inflicted wound of a local minimum wage hike, that is not the case for any city in Oklahoma.
The nation is debating a minimum-wage increase. There are valid points on both sides of that issue. One side says raising the minimum wage destroys jobs and causes inflation. The other says the current minimum wage is not a living wage and hasn’t been adjusted for inflation over time.
Whatever decision results from that national debate, it seems clear to us that minimum wage is a decision best left at large political levels. We can see no valid reason to allow local governments to set their own minimum wage, and we salute the governor and legislators for their choice.
