For Wisconsin to prosper, we need to ensure that all Wisconsinites have the tools they need to be successful. Unfortunately, state lawmakers have proposed numerous bills that take us in the opposite direction.

One such bill, Senate Bill 634/Assembly Bill 748, will strip cities and counties of their authority to provide more opportunity for workers in their communities. The bill is a bold new attack on local government and its ability to address local problems. If enacted, it will eliminate a wide range of tools that cities and counties have been using to combat discrimination and inequality and to improve conditions of employment in their communities.

If the initial version of the bill is approved it would prevent cities and counties from creating and enforcing local ordinances to safeguard against discrimination in wages, hiring, promotion, and treatment at work for protected classes of individuals. It would also end a variety of protections that local governments have implemented which guard against discrimination based on factors like income, gender identity, homelessness, citizenship status, physical appearance, student status, and conviction record.

Although the changes relating to employment discrimination might be removed from the bill, other parts of it would tie the hands of local governments by voiding any local regulations that:

• combat wage theft by enforcing regulations relating to wage claims and collections;
• adopt “living wage” ordinances, which apply to private sector employees who perform contract work for a local government, to better reflect the local cost of living; and
• prohibit prospective employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s previous salary history, which is a practice that perpetuates existing racial and gender wage inequities.

Unfortunately, this bill is part of a much larger pattern. In Wisconsin and across the nation, we see an increased gap between those who rig the system for their own benefit and the rest of us. In Wisconsin, that gap is even more jarring for people of color, who not only face increased barriers to success, but also experience some of the most alarming economic inequities in the nation.

Furthermore, recent decisions being made by federal and state lawmakers are actually widening the divisions in America today. For example, the massive federal tax cuts approved in December are heavily tilted in favor of those who are rigging the system for their own benefit, and now Congress is using the decrease in federal revenue (which they created) as a pretext for cuts in programs that provide critically important support for low and middle income families.

Here in Wisconsin, state lawmakers are also proposing a series of bills that will increase the economic divide, including bills that will impede access to programs that support people who have fallen on hard times. It’s extremely disappointing to see policymakers ignoring public input and rushing to pass bills that change state programs in ways that will hurt low-income Wisconsinites who are struggling to overcome barriers to work.

And while state lawmakers are trying to pass bills that will increase the economic divide, they are simultaneously trying to prevent local governments from reducing that divide. SB 634/AB 748, will prevent local governments from passing policies that are desperately needed in their communities to equalize opportunity and begin reversing the severe racial, ethnic, and economic disparities in our state.

State lawmakers should not prohibit local minimum requirements for employee benefits, such as paid sick leave, when they have not made an effort themselves to set a minimum level for those benefits. To preempt local action on issues that the state is uninterested in or unwilling to tackle would be a severe blow to the lives of hard-working Wisconsinites.

Local elected officials, who understand their communities, should not be prevented from deciding whether their community will adopt and enforce ordinances to combat discrimination, wage theft, and growing economic disparities.

Ken Taylor