'Rocky's loophole' criticized

Anderson said Stephenson's move was expected. He challenged the lawmaker, and any others who would support Stephenson's effort, to try to live on $5.15 an hour.

"In fact, the federal minimum wage is wholly inadequate for someone working full-time to provide decent housing, food and health care," the mayor added.

City Council Chairman Dale Lambert has Anderson's back on this one.

Lambert said it amazes him that the conservative Legislature, which often advocates for local control, continues to want to take away the rights of cities to engage in local control.

"It frequently surprises me that the Utah State Legislature takes actions to limit local control and decisionmaking, and this is another example," he said. "I'm also surprised at the apparent hostility on both a national and state level to things that have the effect of raising minium wages so that working people can — through the efforts of their own work — climb out of poverty."

Hatch echoed Lambert's thoughts about the apparent hypocrisy concerning local rule.

"Howard Stephenson absolutely hates it when the federal government micromanages the state's affairs," he said. "Why does he not see the same restraint in micromanaging the affairs of local government?"

Utah Jobs With Justice director George Neckel called the bill "a backward move on the part of Stephenson."

After all, the No. 1 cause of poverty in Utah is low wages, Neckel said. The state's cost of living is close to the national average, yet its average wages are only about 80 percent of the national average, he said.

"These guys always say that they believe in the free market and the free market ought to set the price of wages," Neckel said. "But their employees are being supported by their church's food pantry and their children get their health care from CHIPS. (Low-paid employees) are not being supported by the market. They're being supported by the taxpayer."

Anderson said he may ask the City Council to allow one of the city's two paid lobbyists to fight the bill at Capitol Hill.

Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City, who also heads the AFL-CIO, said he would fight the bill on the Senate floor after failing to route the bill away from the Senate Rules and Taxation Committee, of which Stephenson is a member.

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