LINCOLN- Just months after Nebraska voters approve a minimum wage hike schedule, two state senators have introduced bills to try to change the projected course. One of these bills, LB15 introduced by Sen. Tom Briese, would allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage to workers under the age of 20. Briese's bill would allow employers to pay youth workers, ages 14 to 17, $9 an hour until 2026, when it would increase to $10.

Briese emphasized that this change was made to benefit small businesses, and said that employers would still be free to pay youths more if they choose. "As legislators, we can't allow provisions like this to force mom-and-pop stores out of business," said Sen. Briese. Another bill, LB327 introduced by Sen, Jane Raybould, would tweak the voter-approved motion to adjust the minimum wage each year after 2026 in accordance with inflation and the cost of living.

As proposed, Raybould's bill would hold post-2026 annual minimum wage bumps to either 1.5%, or lower depending on the cost of living. A concern that prompted Raybould to introduce LB327 was that annual wage increases after 2026 were "not well defined." State Sen. Danielle Conrad stated that she will go the distance to stop both bills, claiming that they are attempts to "undercut the will of the people as expressed in the 2022 citizen initiative."

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