KEOKUK — Supervisors in southeastern Iowa’s Lee County have approved a minimum wage increase, even after state lawmakers passed a bill that would ban local governments from increasing the minimum hourly wage.
Lee County supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to raise the county’s minimum wage to $8.20 an hour — 95-cents above the current minimum of $7.25 an hour.
Supervisor Ron Fedler, of West Point, was the only vote against the measure, saying he does not believe wage laws should be set at the local level.
The GOP-controlled Iowa Senate passed a bill Monday night banning such local minimum wage measures. A similar measure had already passed in the Republican-majority House. The bill now heads to GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, who supports it.