Iowa’s New Local Employment Preemption Law Wipes Out County Minimum Wage Laws

As you may know, it’s common to see minimum wage laws at the federal, state, county and city levels. In Iowa, for example, four counties have passed their own minimum wage laws, one as early as the first week of March 2017.

Johnson, Polk, Linn and Wapello counties had “opt-out” provisions for cities within those counties, which offered these cities the option to either adhere to or opt out of the county minimum wage law, or enact their own. Only about 10 cities chose to opt out of their respective county laws.

As of March 30, 2017, Iowa passed and signed House File 295, which prohibits both counties and cities from adopting any ordinance providing for terms or conditions of employment that exceeds or conflicts with state or federal laws.

These conditions include minimum or living wages, employment leave, hiring practices, employment benefits and scheduling practices.

This law is effective immediately and affects all counties with minimum wage laws, including Johnson, Polk, Linn and Wapello counties. In addition, this will preempt any future, additional employment laws in Iowa.

Currently, Iowa’s minimum wage is the same as the federal of $7.25 wage. Now affected employers are left with the decision to keep or retract the increased minimum wages in these specific counties.

Who is GovDocs?

GovDocs is one of the leading providers of labor law compliance products and services in North America, serving 263,000 employment locations in the U.S. and Canada. More than 20% of Fortune 50 companies rely on us to keep their locations compliant.