Bill to adjust voter approved minimum wage advances in Nebraska legislature

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - With a filibuster and a forced vote, Lincoln Senator Jane Raybould’s efforts to change the voter approved minimum wage laws advanced one step closer to becoming law Wednesday.

An amended version of LB 258 was passed with 33 votes. The bill caps the annual increase to Nebraska’s minimum wage to 1.75% starting in January 2026. The original proposal capped the increase at 1.5%.

The ballot initiative passed by voters in 2022 increased the minimum wage to $15. It would also allow for much larger annual raises based on the inflation rate reflected on the Consumer Price Index for the Midwest. Average inflation for the last five years was 4.18%.

Sen. Raybould, who recently stepped down as Vice President of B&R Stores, which owns Super Saver and Russ’s Markets, said business owners called for these changes.

“I have spent hours answering emails, phone calls with my constituents, visiting daycare centers, visiting with non-profits, talking to small businesses, Chamber of Commerce, home health providers and how they’re going to be paying for all of these increases, and the impacts it’s had on them,” Sen. Raybould said.

Another senator, Paul Strommen, said he believes wage increases will lead to businesses looking for opportunities to increase efficiency.

“At the end of the day, we’re pushing businesses to move to automation, and we’re pushing businesses to reduce their labor force, and that is a bad, bad direction for us to be going in,” Sen. Strommen said.

Lincoln Senator Danielle Conrad said the reduced annual increases will harm workers because pay will not keep up with inflation.

“It makes decisions at the kitchen table harder when deciding whether or not they’re going to replace bald tires on cars, whether or not they’ll be able to get birthday presents, when deciding if they’ll be able to pay the utility bill that month,” Sen. Conrad said.

The law was debated for hours largely because it’s another example of the legislature making changes to voter approved laws.

“Before you watered down the minimum wage that was passed on the ballot did you go to your people and ask them that? I don’t think so. I don’t think the online comments reflect that. I don’t think the response reflects that,” Omaha Senator Terrell McKinney said.

Omaha Senator Wendy DeBoer proposed taking the changes proposed by LB 258 back to the voters.

“I think that’s the solution. Some of the points that folks are making about why they want the bill to be the way it is makes a lot of sense to me. I can understand where they’re coming from,” Sen. DeBoer said. “I think the best procedure here would be to distill what Senator Raybould has here into some kind of a resolution we could put back before the people and basically ask them, ‘okay you told us to do this, is this the kind of clarification you’d like?’”

Sen. Raybould said she supported resolutions like that and overall supports the will of the people. She also said the Nebraska constitution allows the legislature to make adjustments to ballot measures passed by voters.

“Our state is great because people can bring forth issues like Medicaid expansion, minimum wage, medical marijuana, term limits, death penalty, etcetera,” Sen. Raybould said. “I also respect this institution and our role in this process of finding balance.”

LB 258 will go through one more round of voting before becoming law. In addition to capping the annual raises to the minimum wage, the law also reduces the hourly pay from $15 to $13.50 for 14 and 15-year-old employees. Teens ages 16 to 19 would also get paid that lower rate during their first 90 days on the job.

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