{"id":5172,"date":"2013-08-16T11:37:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T15:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5172"},"modified":"2013-08-16T11:39:03","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T15:39:03","slug":"georgias-alec-local-cheap-labor-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/georgias-alec-local-cheap-labor-law.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia’s ALEC local cheap labor law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nDid you know in 2005 Georgia passed a cheap labor law\r\neven more draconian than its ALEC model Local Minimum Wage Preemption Act?\r\n

\r\nHere’s the law, \r\n2005-2006 Regular Session – HB 59\r\nMinimum wage mandates by local governments; change certain provisions<\/a>,\r\nsponsored by who else but\r\n\r\nresigned-in-disgrace<\/a>\r\nfor\r\n\r\npromoting an Agenda 21 talking points film at the statehouse<\/a>\r\nChip Rogers,\r\nwho nonetheless also sponsored the successful\r\n\r\ncharter school and\r\nmulti-year contract<\/a> constitutional amendments.\r\nHB 59 took effect 1 July 2005.\r\nHere’s the part that matches the\r\n\r\nALEC model Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"ALEC<\/a>\r\n34-4-3.1(a)(6)(b)\r\n

\r\n(1) Any and all wage or employment benefit mandates adopted by any local\r\ngovernment entity are hereby preempted.\r\n

\r\n(2) No local government entity may adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance,\r\npurchase agreement, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution, either directly or indirectly,\r\na wage or employment benefit mandate.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHere’s the part that goes beyond even what ALEC proposed:\r\n

\r\n(c) No local government entity may through its purchasing or contracting procedures seek\r\nto control or affect the wages or employment benefits provided by its vendors, contractors,\r\nservice providers, or other parties doing business with the local government entity. A local\r\ngovernment entity shall not through the use of evaluation factors, qualification of bidders,\r\nor otherwise award preferences on the basis of wages or employment benefits provided by\r\nits vendors, contractors, service providers, or other parties doing business with the local\r\ngovernment entity.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWhy such a law?\r\nALEC spelled it out:\r\n

\r\nSection 2. {Legislative Declarations.}\r\n

\r\nThis legislature finds and declares that:\r\n

\r\n(A) Economic stability and growth are among the most important factors affecting the\r\ngeneral welfare of the people of this state, and that economic stability and growth are\r\ntherefore among the most important matters for which the Legislature is responsible;\r\n

\r\n(B) Mandated wage rates comprise a major cost component for private enterprises, and\r\nare among the chief factors affecting the economic stability and growth of this state;\r\n

\r\n(C) Local variations in mandated wage rates threaten many businesses with a loss of\r\nemployees to areas which require higher mandated wage rates, threaten many other\r\nbusinesses with the loss of patrons to areas which allow lower mandated wage rates, and\r\nare therefore detrimental to the business environment of the state and to the citizens,\r\nbusinesses, and governments of the various political subdivisions as well as local labor\r\nmarkets;\r\n

\r\n(D) In order for businesses to remain competitive and yet attract and retain the highest\r\npossible caliber of employees, private enterprises in this state must be allowed to function\r\nin a uniform environment with respect to mandated wage rates; and\r\n

\r\n(E) Legislated wage disparity between political subdivisions of this state creates an\r\nanticompetitive marketplace that fosters job and business relocation.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nTranslation: cheap labor keeps business profits up, and if any localities\r\ncan raise their minimum wages labor might flock there instead.\r\nSo (A) really means business profits are more important than the general welfare\r\nof the people of this state or local control of local government.\r\n

\r\nDoes that seem right to you?\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know in 2005 Georgia passed a cheap labor law even more draconian than its ALEC model Local Minimum Wage Preemption Act? Here’s the law, 2005-2006 Regular Session – HB 59 Minimum wage mandates by local governments; change certain provisions, sponsored by who else but resigned-in-disgrace for promoting an Agenda 21 talking points film […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[140,14,8,2,20],"tags":[8744,2642,163,8704,8701,8699,6821,8702,8710,12,947],"class_list":["post-5172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-economy","category-georgia","category-government","category-law","tag-alec","tag-cheap-labor","tag-chip-rogers","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-hb-59","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-minimum-wage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1lq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5175,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172\/revisions\/5175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}