22-05-2025
Lawmakers will reconsider slowing Nebraska's minimum wage increases – but likely vote next year
State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska News Service)
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature will retake a vote on a proposal to slow down voter-approved minimum wage increases – but likely not this session.
A Democratic-led minority and Republican-led majority in the officially nonpartisan body fought Thursday over whether to allow reconsideration of the vote on Lincoln State Sen. Jane Raybould's Legislative Bill 258.
Raybould, whose family owns a grocery store chain that includes Super Saver, is the lone Democrat supporting the slowdown. State Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont is the lone Republican opposing the bill.
The rest of the Legislature's Democrats and one nonpartisan progressive who usually votes with them, argued against ignoring 'the will of the people.' They celebrated a brief tactical victory May 14 by forcing a faster vote while one GOP senator was off the floor and missed the vote.
'Hats off to the opponents. Well played and well within the rules, just as this motion … is in order and appropriate,' State Sen. Bob Hallstrom of Syracuse said. 'We're here today due to a heat of the moment.'
Raybould's revived proposal, in its current form, would shrink voter-approved annual wage increases by setting the annual increase at 1.75%. It also would create a youth minimum wage and amend a separate state training wage to limit it to workers aged 16 to 19 at 75% of the state minimum wage later this year, rather than at 75% of the federal wage. Training workers can earn that wage for up to the employee's first 90 days on the job.
Under the voter-approved law, workers would see larger wage increases. Currently, the state minimum wage is $9 an hour. If lawmakers do nothing, voters will increase that to $15 next year. Then the base wage would increase each year based on a cost of living measurement, a calculation of inflation for the Midwest region from the previous August.
The same lawmakers who used the rules to force a quicker vote and kill the bill challenged the legitimacy of the motion to reconsider. Speaker John Arch pointed to a reconsideration motion on a bill in 1984 as precedent, allowing State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln to file a reconsideration motion after all.
A reconsideration motion requires a senator on the 'prevailing' side to want to change a vote, or the requesting senator must have missed the vote. Ballard voted 'no' after realizing Sorrentino had missed the vote.
'I disagree that this is in order,' Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln said. 'But even if it is in order, it's a waste of the people's time. If not, break, bend the rules in an effort to continue our parade of walking back the people's votes. It's kind of an embarrassment for the body.'
Raybould pushed back on the idea that she was messing with the people's will, saying she made 'a commitment to follow the rules of this body and not bend the rules, despite what so many might be saying today.'
She previously told reporters that she is uncomfortable with suspending legislative rules to bring back her bill. Raybould and supporters of her measure said her changes would protect small businesses that could not afford to pay more.
'I am saddened that the debate on previous rounds of debate on this bill became ugly, heated and personal,' Raybould said. 'It didn't have to, and that was a choice as well.'
Thursday's push was the latest part of a trend of the GOP-majority Legislature pushing back against a handful of ballot measures passed by Nebraska voters on requiring paid sick leave, raising the minimum wage, repealing school vouchers and legalizing medical marijuana.
Arch said he didn't intend to reschedule the bill for a vote for the remainder of the legislative session. He told a reporter that it's a 'matter of fairness,' because he is 'just flat out of time.'
'I've got 11 general file priority bills that are not going to be able to make it to the floor,' Arch said. 'In fairness to those that have not been able to get on the floor … it's not appropriate to bring a bill back for a vote, take perhaps another two hours … take time.'
The political dynamics facing the bill could change next year as voters see base wages increase to $15. Raybould's proposal, if passed next year, would claw back some of the increases that young people would get under the current law, which Raybould acknowledges.
'Sadly, what I think will happen come [next] January, and I've heard through several small businesses that I've been in contact with and have emailed me that they probably won't hire 14- and 15-year olds,' Raybould said. 'They'll just give more hours to those that have been with them … more years.'
If Raybould decides not to wait, Ballard and Raybould both said they're still open to amending Raybould's proposal into his paid sick leave bill. His proposal would weaken a voter-approved paid sick leave framework, using similar arguments to hers. Ballard said he would prefer to keep his bill clean.
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