North Carolina Passes Budget Preventing Local Minimum Wage Hikes

The North Carolina House last week passed a new budget that would keep local governments from setting minimum wages for private employers.

The new provision to North Carolina's "Wage and Hour Act" would also keep local governments from putting a cap on the number of hours an employee can work weekly, and from mandating private companies provide benefits like paid parental leave or vacation time, as reposted by the Carolina Journal.

Local government employees can still be subject to receiving those benefits and wages. The new provision would only apply to private employers.

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, R, praised the new budget.

“A lot of the conversation has been about where the differences of opinion are, but now is a good time to talk about what a good budget this is, what it does; Moore said, as reported by the Journal. "Absolutely record investment in rural infrastructure like water sewer and education, tax relief for working families, more money for education, pay raises for our hard working state employees, we have probably the greatest budget I’ve ever seen.”