Lexington’s recently passed law hiking the minimum wage is dead, Mayor Jim Gray’s spokeswoman said Thursday morning.
In a three-sentence statement, Gray spokeswoman Susan Straub said Lexington’s law “has been invalidated” by a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling issued earlier in the day.
In that 6-1 ruling, the Commonwealth’s high court ruled the Metro Louisville government had overstepped its authority in passing its minimum wage hike. The lawsuit was brought last year by the Kentucky Restaurant Association, the Kentucky Retail Federation and Packing Unlimited LLC against Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government.
As the ruling broadly declares that state law does not allow local governments to change minimum wage law, Straub said it also has the effect of killing Lexington’s ordinance.
“This morning, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down Louisville’s minimum wage ordinance,” Straub said. “This opinion effectively prevents cities, including Lexington, from increasing the minimum wage. Lexington’s local minimum wage ordinance has been invalidated.”
Gray, who is facing long-shot odds in his bid to unseat Sen. Rand Paul on Nov. 8, issued a statement through his campaign saying he supports a federal minimum wage and criticizing lack of action at the congressional level on the issue.
"The current position that our local communities are in is inexcusable," Gray said. "It’s time for Washington to act."
In a historic vote last December, Lexington voted to raise the minimum wage.
Councilwoman Jennifer Mossotti, the 9th District council member who sponsored the ordinance, reacted Thursday with disappointment.
“This decision, in essence, means that many of those less fortunate workers in Louisville and in Lexington will continue to struggle to pay for basic needs such as housing, transportation, child care, food and other essentials," Mossotti said in a statement.
The vote in Lexington put business and government officials on the record in what had become a divisive national debate.
Gray had expressed ambivalence about the measure, which raises the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour over three years, repeatedly suggesting during the nearly year-long debate that the issue was better suited for state or federal consideration. However, Gray removed any doubt to where he stood before last month’s final vote.
Just prior to the council’s vote Nov. 19, Gray broke his silence, telling the packed council chamber that if approved, he would sign the ordinance and make it law.
“I support this legislation because, on balance, it is the right thing to do,” Gray said then. “Those in our community who rely on the minimum wage are long overdue an increase in pay.”
Gray appeared to be echoing widespread complaints that neither Congress nor the Kentucky General Assembly had taken up the issue. The last national minimum wage increase took effect in 2009.
Mosotti on Thursday picked up on that theme, saying, "It is past the time for the Kentucky General Assembly to act to increase the minimum wage."
The Urban County Council voted 9-6 in favor of raising the minimum pay, which was expected to impact as many as 41,000 workers in the city, according to one study.
Voting in favor of the ordinance along with Mossotti were Vice Mayor Steve Kay and council members Richard Moloney, James Brown, Shevawn Akers, Jake Gibbs, Susan Lamb, Angela Evans and Peggy Henson.
Opposed to the measure were council members Kevin Stinnett, Bill Farmer, Jennifer Scutchfield, Fred Brown, Amanda Bledsoe and former councilman Russ Hensley.
Mossotti, the 9th District council member who sponsored the ordinance, called the action “courageous” and compared it to the council’s passing of other controversial legislation, such as a fairness ordinance and a public smoking ban.
“I am absolutely delighted that it passed. I am very happy,” she said at the time. “It was a long process – nine months – and a lot of hard work on the part of council members.”
However, the new wage ordinance faces an uncertain future. Louisville was the first city in the state to hike its minimum wage. Louisville’s Metro Council voted to raise the minimum pay in the state’s largest city in two stages, topping out at $9 an hour in July 2017.