A worker helps a customer at a restaurant. Across most of the South and Midwest, state laws bar local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Across most of the South and Midwest, state laws bar local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, effectively stripping cities of the power to enact their own labor protections.
What happened when 2 KY cities tried to raise wage
The Kentucky legislature in 2017 enacted a law that preempts local governments from requiring employers to provide fringe benefits such as sick leave. The law also bars local governments from raising the minimum wage.
The action reinforced a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling from the year before that struck down local minimum wage increases in Louisville and Lexington…