## Facts

- In 1997, Louisiana enacted La. R.S. 23:642, barring local governmental subdivisions from requiring private employers to pay a locally established minimum wage.
- New Orleans adopted Ordinance No. 20,376 as a home-rule charter amendment establishing a city minimum wage set at $1 above the federal minimum wage (then $6.15 per hour).
- New Orleans voters approved the charter amendment by referendum on February 2, 2002.
- The New Orleans Campaign for a Living Wage and individual proponents sued for a declaratory judgment that the ordinance was valid and that La. R.S. 23:642 was unconstitutional.
- Business groups and allied parties sued to invalidate the ordinance as conflicting with La. R.S. 23:642; the actions were consolidated.
- The district court held La. R.S. 23:642 unconstitutional and upheld the ordinance.
- The case reached the Louisiana Supreme Court on direct appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether La. R.S. 23:642, which preempts local minimum-wage mandates for private employers, is constitutional as an exercise of the state’s police power.
2. Whether New Orleans’s minimum-wage charter amendment is unconstitutional under La. Const. art. VI, § 9(B) because it abridges the police power of the state.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the district court.
- The Court held La. R.S. 23:642 constitutional as a legitimate exercise of the state’s police power.
- The Court held Ordinance No. 20,376 unconstitutional because it abridged the state’s police power in violation of La. Const. art. VI, § 9(B).
- The Court concluded that a home-rule municipality cannot impose a local minimum-wage mandate for private employers when state law validly prohibits such local regulation.

## Legal Principles

- The state legislature may regulate wages and labor standards under the police power, including adopting rules aimed at statewide economic stability and uniformity.
- Courts generally defer to the legislature’s predictive judgments in economic regulation so long as the enactment falls within the police power.
- Under La. Const. art. VI, § 9(B), home-rule authority may not be exercised in a manner that abridges the police power of the state.
- When the state validly exercises police power in a field and enacts a statute preempting local regulation, a conflicting municipal ordinance is unconstitutional.

## Conclusion

Louisiana’s preemption statute barring local minimum-wage requirements for private employers was upheld as a valid police-power measure, and New Orleans’s voter-approved charter amendment setting a higher local minimum wage was struck down because it conflicted with and therefore abridged the state’s police power under the Louisiana Constitution.


New Orleans Campaign for a Living Wage v. City of New Orleans, 825 So. 2d 1098 (La. 2002)