County and Municipal Policies Start to Move Beyond Minimum Wage

There has been a decline in the quality of employment in the U.S., particularly for low-wage workers, as millions of Americans continue to find themselves working multiple part-time positions or contractual “gig” work to make ends meet. While minimum wage is often the first policy lever that comes to mind, the federal government has not amended its minimum wage requirements since it was increased to $7.25 in 2007. In the wake of federal inaction, county and city governments have adopted novel employment protections that stretch beyond hourly rate. These broader employment protections include advance notice of scheduling, paid family and sick leave, as well as “gig” worker and collective bargaining protections.

With funding from the Policy, Practice, and Prevention Center (P3RC) at the University of Illinois Chicago, researchers at the School of Public Health (UIC SPH) used American Legal Publishing and MuniCode to collect information on policies in 10 counties and 10 municipalities across the country. We developed a coding tool to determine the extent to which broader employment protections have passed in each county or municipality as of 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023.

Some highlights from the most recent, 2023 data include:

• Minimum wage policies above the federal minimum level were passed more than other policies collected (5 counties, 9 municipalities).
• Policies in Chicago and Seattle mentioned mandated rest periods between shifts, and, in some situations, allowed employees to decline a shift that is less than 10 hours after the end of the previous day's shift.
• Three municipalities, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle had policies that required advance notice of schedules. Each required two weeks’ notice.

• Two counties (San Francisco County and Cook County) and four municipalities (Chicago, St. Paul, San Francisco, and Seattle) had policies that mandated paid sick leave and paid family leave for employees. However, the amount of time provided was shared between sick and family leave.
• None of the counties or municipalities in our sample addressed unpaid sick leave.
• Policies in Miami-Dade County and the municipality of St. Louis mandated unpaid family leave, using policy language similar to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act
• Seattle was the outlier in addressing a specific “gig” worker minimum wage in 2023, with additional protections planned in coming years.

Next Steps

These broad employment protection policies stand to reduce volatility in employee income and schedules. Future research is needed to better understand the impact of these policies on employee health and well-being.