State lawmakers are poised to consider additional workplace protections in 2023, as labor advocates look to fill the policy vacuum created by a divided Congress and to address worker challenges exacerbated by Covid-19.
Minimum wages, pay equity, sexual harassment, and paid leave will feature among the bevy of employment-policy proposals up for debate this year in statehouses, several of which open their 2023 sessions this week.
“Labor is really going to push hard in blue states,” said Tim Goodrich, vice president of state government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, which advocates for small businesses and opposes expansion of workplace mandates such as minimum wages and paid leave. “Nothing is going to happen in D.C. over the next couple of years.”
Part of the momentum will come from statehouses that saw significant blue gains in November’s elections.
Michigan and Minnesota will be key to watch, as Democrats have gained majority control in both chambers of each state’s legislature for the first time in years.
In Michigan, labor leaders have made clear they will try to boost unions by repealing the state’s anti-union “right to work” law. Michigan is one of 27 states with such a law, which bans mandatory union membership as a condition of employment. States rarely repeal the measures.
Business groups argue a repeal in Michigan would hurt the...
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