Senate committee votes to block Birmingham minimum wage

The running battle between the state government and the city of Birmingham over the minimum wage spilled into a Senate committee Wednesday.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee voted 7 to 2 on party lines for a bill sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, that would prevent the city from setting a $10.10 an hour minimum wage. The House of Representatives approved the measure on Feb. 16.

The legislation should be on the floor of the Senate on Thursday. Faulkner’s legislation bans cities from enacting their own minimum wage levels, and also restricts municipalities from their power to negotiate living wages in contracts.

Birmingham last August voted to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over a two-year period. Faulkner filed a bill in last September’s special session to block the move, but the legislation did not move out of the House.

Faulkner told the committee that his bill was not meant to be a discussion about the proper level of the minimum wage. But he said it should be done statewide, and criticized Birmingham’s move.

“We have been contacted by business owners who tell us ‘Please pass this. Don’t let this happen,’” Faulkner said.

Business owners on the committee approved of the bill. Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, who owns a restaurant, said a $10.10 an hour minimum wage would increase his labor costs by at least nine percent.

“If you don’t pass this bill you are going to kill jobs in this state instantly,” he said, “and you are going to kill further jobs from coming to the state.”

A game of brinksmanship began earlier this month after it appeared clear Faulkner would refile the bill. The Birmingham City Council moved this week to impose the $10.10 an hour wage immediately. Council members have said they consider it an anti-poverty measure aimed at improving quality of life.

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, criticized the legislation, saying cities were trying to make efforts to improve living standards for their constituents.

“I think Alabama is poor by choice,” she said. “We brag on cheap labor. We have an underfunded educational system. We have a lack of respect for the quality of life for our citizens.”

The median hourly wage in Alabama in May 2014 was $14.83 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national figure was $17.03 an hour. Wages in the United States have more or less stagnated since 1973.

Coleman-Madison and Sen. Priscilla Dunn, D-Bessemer, voted against the bill. Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman, who voted for it, expressed concerns about the impact the bill might have on local legislation in the future.

“There may be a time my district needs something none of y’all understand,” he said. “Does that mean you’ll come in and prevent that?”

The vote triggered an angry protest from Frank Matthews, a Birmingham-based activist, who vowed to organize a strike in protest of the bill.

“They didn’t even consider the poor people who wanted to speak about this legislation,” Matthews, standing in the audience, said after the committee concluded.

The Montgomery County Democratic Party earlier this month approved a resolution urging local governments to set a minimum wage of $11 an hour. Tyna Davis, the chairwoman of the party, said Wednesday the party considered that level a "living wage."

"Our concern is trying to find a number, and it is a minimum number, at which people can live," she said.