New civil fines will allow the City of St. Paul to enforce labor standards more effectively. That includes the city’s $15 minimum wage, which workers fought to pass in 2018.
In a move praised by worker advocates, St. Paul City Council members voted unanimously Jan. 22 to allow the city to issue administrative citations.
The vote to amend the city charter, supporters said, will allow St. Paul to enforce its labor standards and other ordinances more effectively and equitably by issuing civil fines, rather than getting entangled in costly, sometimes lengthy legal battles.
It’s a tool other large cities in Minnesota have at their disposal – and for good reason, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson told council members during a public hearing on the amendment Jan. 15.
“It would allow the city to avoid burdening people with criminal convictions, and it would absolutely make a difference for low wage workers who are not being paid fairly in our city,” Peterson said. “The City of St. Paul should add it to their toolkit.”
In recent years the city has passed an ordinance establishing its own minimum wage, as well as wage-theft and sick-time ordinances, with enforcement falling on the Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO).
But until now, the only enforcement option available to HREEO staff who identified a violation was criminal charges.
With administrative citations, the process will play out without going to court.
“The current system rewards people who are wealthy and can afford to fight the city and drag things out,” SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa’s Rick Varco told council members.
That creates an incentive, SEIU member Tavona Johnson added, for “wealthy corporations to break the law and force low-wage workers to do something about it.”
“Under the current system, employers can threaten to clog the courts and run out the clock,” Johnson, who lives in St. Paul, added. “I have lived paycheck to paycheck, and these delays and lost wages hurt.”
“If you’re a low-wage worker, any delay in getting the wages that you’ve earned can be devastating,” UNITE HERE Local 17 Secretary-Treasurer Sheigh Freeberg said.
St. Paul renters, small business owners and community members joined labor activists at the public hearing, where the overwhelming majority of speakers voiced support for administrative citations.
The fines could also make it easier for the city to enforce its housing codes and compel owners of vacant or blighted properties to make improvements. Tonette Clardy, a homeowner in Ward 4, complained to council members about a vacant building in her neighborhood that was recently condemned.
“As a Black homeowner, I’m afraid this building will bring down my property values, which hurts my ability to build wealth for my family,” Clardy said. “I want to make sure the building owner is held accountable, and at the same time, I don’t think they should go to jail.”
Union Advocate 