ALABAMA: A Chattanooga City Council member wants to introduce a citywide minimum wage in the next few weeks, but a state law may prevent the effort from getting off the ground. Council member Moses Freeman announced plans to submit a bill to establish a minimum and peg it to an economic index like inflation.
The 8th District councilman did not say what rate he has in mind, but he said his announcement comes after discussions with constituents.City Attorney Wade Hinton said there might be legislative issues to consider, and he plans to speak with Freeman about them. A 2013 state law prevents cities and counties from requiring employers to pay an hourly wage in excess of the minimums established by U.S. or Tennessee law.
Tennessee House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick said when Memphis tried to create its own minimum wage a few years ago, the Legislature overruled it. He said lawmakers would be willing to fine-tune the law if Chattanooga puts its own wage floor in place.For them to have their own minimum wage laws out of step with the rest of the state would distort the market and kill jobs,” McCormick said. “I strongly suspect that the state would step in and prohibit the city from doing that.”
Freeman’s announcement surprised several council members and city officials who said they have not been consulted on the proposal. Tennessee does not have a minimum wage. Employers are required to pay workers the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. He said that rate is not enough “to get workers out of poverty.”
