Mayor Chris Beutler said Tuesday he would veto the City Council's decision to exempt nonprofit organizations from the city's living wage ordinance.
the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, November 19, 2007 6:00 pm
Mayor Chris Beutler said Tuesday he would veto the City Council’s decision to exempt nonprofit organizations from the city’s living wage ordinance.
The ordinance requires companies with at least 10 employees who have city contracts worth $25,000 or more to pay full-time employees a minimum hourly salary, adjusted annually. It is currently $10.92 per hour or $9.93 per hour with health insurance benefits.
The City Council passed the ordinance in March 2004.
“The living wage is simple justice and fairness for our working poor,” Beutler said in a news release. “Government works best when it rewards work - not when it forces people onto the welfare rolls. The best anti-poverty program ever devised is a fair wage for a hard day’s work.”
A study conducted by the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest in the summer of 2006 found that the living wage ordinance “has not caused an increase in service payments or contract costs for the government.”
Beutler said he plans to veto the Council action as soon as the proceedings of Monday’s meeting are delivered to his office. The city clerk has 48 hours after adjournment to forward council action to the mayor.