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Dozens gathered Thursday, April 14, 2016, to protest low wages and demand a $15 an hour minimum wage. The group protested at the McDonald's at Five Points West in Birmingham, Ala., before moving around to four different fast food restaurants. (file photo)

The battle in Alabama last year over the future of the state's minimum wage law is expected to continue into 2017, and it has the potential to become an explosive issue divided along racial lines.

The Alabama debate is unlike that occurring in other states and their various large cities, where calls to increase the minimum wage are generally debated on economic merits.

In Alabama, federal court is the setting for a case that is reintroducing historical charges of racism and applying them to ongoing tension over low wages in majority black cities such as Birmingham.

The scathing federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of organizations such as the NAACP and the Greater Birmingham Ministries, and alleges that Alabama's white legislative majorities thwarted Birmingham's efforts last year to increase the minimum wage within the city's limits to $10.10 an hour. The increase would have affected 40,000 people.

Hard debate about Alabama's minimum wage, which mirrors the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, could also resurface in the halls of power in Montgomery.

For now, some key lawmakers, including Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh, don't anticipate a minimum wage increase gaining much traction this session.

'More jobs, not less'

In Washington, Alabama's Bradley Byrne - the Republican U.S. House representative from Fairhope - was recently appointed as chairman of a subcommittee on workforce protections. Among the issues that group could take up are any proposals to increase the federal minimum wage, which hasn't budged since 2009.

Congressman Bradley Byrne was recently named as chairman of a congressional subcommittee on workforce protections. Among the issues the subcommittee could consider are proposals to raise the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. (file photo)

"Everything we've heard in Congress including from the (Congressional Budget Office) is if we increase the minimum wage, we decrease the number of jobs in America," said Byrne, a past opponent of increasing the federal minimum wage. "We're about more jobs, not less jobs."

Alabama is one of five states, all concentrated in the South, that do not have a minimum wage law. As a result, Alabama's minimum wage follows the federal wage of $7.25 an hour, an amount that civil rights groups have long criticized as being too low and one that purposely deflates wages among black workers.

The lack of action on the federal level has prompted a majority of states to take action and implement their own minimum wage laws amid protests from activist groups like Fight for $15, which has advocated for the higher workplace pay for the past four years.

New state minimums went into effect in seven states this year, although most of those have higher costs of living than Alabama (California, New York, Colorado and Oregon, for instance).

But in comparable cost-of-living states, such as Arkansas, higher minimum wages also have been adopted. That state's new minimum wage, which went into effect Jan. 1, is at $8.50 an hour.

West Virginia, another state with similar costs of living as Alabama, increased its minimum to $8.75 an hour a year ago.

Byrne said that before the federal government intervenes, it would need to take direction from newly sworn-in President Donald Trump. The president has had multiple views on whether the minimum wage should be raised, recently saying he wants to see it somewhat increased.

When asked whether a minimum-wage debate within his subcommittee is a non-starter, Byrne said: "I don't want to say anything is a non-starter. We want to hear from Mr. Trump and his secretary of Labor."

Trump's choice for labor secretary, fast-food CEO Andy Puzder, is unpopular with groups like Fight for $15. Workers with Hardees and Carl's Jr. restaurants, which Pudzer oversees, filed 33 complaints recently against Puzder and his nomination hearing before the Senate has been pushed back three times in the past couple of weeks. The most recent confirmation hearing date is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Byrne said he anticipates added pressure on House Republicans by special interest groups to push forward a federalized increase. "The question is whether we want to give into that pressure," he said.

Byrne's appointment as chairman of the subcommittee was praised by pro-business groups, but has been met with skepticism from worker rights organizations like the National Employment Law Project.

Judy Conti, federal advocacy coordinator with the National Employment Law Project, said she remains "hopeful" that Congress will increase the federal minimum. Some others are skeptical that anything will happen, given that the GOP is in the majority of both the House and the Senate.

William Canary, president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, who praises Byrne's appointment, said the minimum wage has become a "political wedge issue." In his view, any increase would especially hurt younger, entry-level workers by reducing their numbers.

Conti counters that by saying that an increase is "overwhelmingly popular with voters from all political persuasions."

Recent Pew Research Center data shows a partisan split on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

According the study, conducted in August 2016, 52 percent of voters supported an increase of the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour, while 46 percent opposed.

Among Democrat Hillary Clinton's supporters, 82 percent backed the change. On the opposite side, 76 percent of Trump supporters were opposed.

The issue also split along racial lines: 54 percent of white voters opposed such an increase, while 89 percent of black voters expressed support.

'Racial lines'

In Alabama, the lawsuit filed in federal court brings race to the fore, linking the minimum wage debate to the state's history of suppressing black rights.

The lawsuit's defendants, led by Attorney General Luther Strange's office, lambaste claims of racial bias as "wholly implausible."

"Alabama's minimum-wage law quite plainly does not draw racial lines on its face and because there quite plainly are 'more likely explanations' for its passage than purposeful racism," wrote Deputy Attorney General William Parker, calling the racism angle "far-fetched."

Strange's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

His office requests a judge to dismiss the lawsuit because it names no "appropriate defendant" who plays a role in enforcing minimum wage rules.

More than 20 pages of the lawsuit, as amended last June, dwell on Alabama's history of racism and discrimination, particularly condemning the 1901 Alabama Constitution as fostering decades' worth of cruelties imposed by white lawmakers on the state's black population.

The complaint also takes to task the lack of "home rule" in Alabama, which would give cities like Birmingham new power to guide their own affairs.

The complaint particularly focuses on the abrupt passage last year of HB 174, which was supported by the Republican legislative supermajorities, and prevented the city of Birmingham's minimum wage ordinance from taking effect.

In August 2015, the Birmingham City Council unanimously adopted two minimum wage increases within the city limits: $8.50 per hour on July 1, 2016; and $10.10 per hour on July 1, 2017.

On Feb. 16, 2016, the Alabama House voted 71-31 for HB 174, which would block Birmingham's minimum wage increase. The vote, as noted in the lawsuit, fell almost entirely along racial lines: 71 members of the House, all white, voted in favor, while 27 of the 31 opponents were black.

On Feb. 24, the Birmingham City Council again voted in the $10.10 increase, effective as soon as it was published in the Birmingham News. But the Legislature, the next day, finalized its approval of HB 174 and it was signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley.

The lawsuit claims that the state's actions violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by transferring control over minimum wage from the majority-black Birmingham city government to the majority-white Legislature.

The state, in its legal response, questioned the charges of racism by saying that HB 174 doesn't apply to just one city but extends statewide. It also questions the lawsuits claims of racism, saying there has been no direct evidence of a racist motive cited by anyone in the case.

The lawsuit's key quarry is Alabama's home rule limitations, according to James Blacksher, a Birmingham-based attorney who represents the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, which consists of 27 black House members and seven black senators.

"The ultimate goal is to make it more difficult, under federal Constitution, for the state to interfere in local government's ability to enact ordinances that improve the economic conditions in their jurisdictions," Blacksher said.

The state's response, however, defends home rule and the Legislature's "supreme" power in enacting general and consistent laws.

Said Canary, of the Alabama Business Council: "Alabama businesses do not need a patchwork of local labor laws that serve only to divert resources away from providing equal opportunities for all Alabamians."

The state's response also acknowledged that other cities were looking to follow Birmingham's lead: Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery.

And, according to the state, Alabama's lawmakers weren't doing anything unusual: Sixteen other states prohibit city governments from enacting their own minimum wage ordinances.

In at least one state engaged in a similar fight, the issue is heading to the ballot box. In Missouri, the state's Supreme Court ruled this month that Kansas City voters will decide whether the minimum wage should increase to $15 an hour.

Protesters gathered Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016, in downtown Birmingham, Ala., to urge federal courts to repeal HB174, which denies states the right to set their own minimum wages. (file photo)

'Sooner rather than later'

In Alabama, state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, introduced HB 26 last month and it's scheduled for a first read on Feb. 7. The bill calls for minimum wage hikes starting on Jan. 1, 2020, tied to the Consumer Price Index.

Lawmakers, by and large, doubt that the bill will get far with Republicans holding a supermajority advantage in Montgomery.

William Califf, spokesman for Marsh's office, said he doesn't anticipate "much discussion" on the matter in the Alabama Senate. A spokeswoman with Alabama House Speaker Mac McCutcheon did not return calls for comment.

"I don't see any increase in the minimum wage passing the Legislature any time soon," said Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster.

Said Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose: "I'm not for government really establishing the minimum wage, and I do encourage people to get all of their worth and if they are hired at the minimum wage, that they show the people who they are working for that they are worth more than that."

Alabama House Minority Leader Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said it's a "very tough, up-hill battle" for any minimum wage increase to gain much traction in the Legislature.

But Conti, with the National Employment Law Project, said that without any activity in Alabama, the state's low-wage workers are bound to fight back.

"With so many states now raising the minimum wage not just above the federal minimum wage, but substantially higher, the wage gap between low-wage workers in deep red states like Alabama and more progressive states is going to grow," Conti said.

She added, "I believe the growing disparity between wages in states is going to force the hand of federal legislators like Mr. Byrne - maybe not this year, but sooner rather than later."

Richard Burkhauser, a Cornell University professor who argues against minimum wage increases, said he believes it would be a mistake for Alabama to approve one.

He said an increase above the federal minimum wage will reduce demand for low-skilled workers. Also, he said an increase is not very "target effective" in helping poor families, since a vast majority of those whose wages are increased by a minimum wage do not live in poor families.

As for Trump, Burkhauser predicts that the new president will defer to state lawmakers on decisions about the minimum wage.

And with that, the current battles in Alabama are likely to continue.

"I doubt if Republican controlled legislatures will be interested in increasing their city or state minimum wage," Burkhauser said.