Are State Workplace Preemption Laws on the Rise?

A growing number of states are barring cities, towns and counties from enacting workplace wage, benefit and anti-discrimination laws and those localities have limited means to challenge them.

“Preemption is a very powerful, .45 caliber weapon that state governments can use to shoot down municipal laws,” Lee Adler, a professor with Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Bloomberg BNA. “The law is on the side of the people who seek to preempt.”

Generally, state preemption is a legal doctrine providing that state laws take precedence over local laws or regulations that conflict with or are inconsistent with ...