Companies seeking government contracts with cities and counties wouldn't have to promise to pay employees more than the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage under a bill moved to the Senate floor Friday.

The measure runs counter to Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's effort to encourage companies doing work for the city to pay a living wage.

Without SB139, said sponsor Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, if a city considers wage structures of contracting companies, they are crossing into territory intended to be managed by the state and federal governments, he said.

The bill, which passed the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee 5-1, is necessary, Stephenson said, to prevent further exploitation of a loophole in state law that Salt Lake City based its procurement policy on, he said, adding that instead of passing its own administrative rules, the city should have lobbied the Legislature to allow the policy to be implemented throughout a region.

"This does not preclude municipalities and counties from coming to this Legislature and seeking a regional preference policy," he said. "What Salt Lake City is trying to achieve in an isolated setting could be achieved by coming to us."

Critics of the bill, however, say that giving preference to companies who pay higher wages benefits both cities and workers because it keeps people off public assistance and allows them be self-sufficient members of the community. Pamela Silberman, project coordinator for Utah Issues, said when two full-time workers making minimum wage are barely living above the federal poverty line, prohibiting cities from asking for higher wages in their contracts will help nobody and will significantly hurt the working poor.

"It puts a barrier in the way of workers trying to increase their income," she said. "By not allowing minimum wage to be considered, we are promoting a race to the bottom."

In voting for the bill, Sen. Greg Bell, R-Farmington, said that forcing companies to pay certain wages instead of relying on the market was counterintuitive.

"My heart would really like to cooperate, but my mind doesn't agree," Bell said. "The market doesn't work that way. . . . You can't outlaw poverty."

Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, who cast the only vote against the bill, said he was concerned about the impact on workers and on local governments. He suggested that instead of prohibiting those governments from considering wages, they be prohibited only from requiring a certain wage level.

"I'm wondering if we're shackling a county commission or city council who want to be assured that a company is good for their community," he said.

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