Council Member Warns Omaha Not to Follow Lincoln’s Lead on Minimum Wage

by Matt Johnson

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA – Omaha City Councilwoman Aimee Melton said she was concerned the city was about to “waste” taxpayers’ dollars fighting to increase the minimum wage, despite concerns about its constitutionality.

“Councilman Danny Begley has put a city minimum wage ordinance in place. In my opinion, I do not believe that the city of Omaha has the legal authority to do it,” Melton said during an event in Omaha last week. “I firmly believe that it’s going to pass. And then you know what that’s going to do? We’re just going to get into litigation. We’re going to have to wait for a judge and the Supreme Court to reverse course. And those are things that just don’t make sense to me, and it’s a waste of your taxpayer dollars.”

In May, the Lincoln City Council voted 6-1 to reinstate the ballot measure’s original terms as its own city-wide minimum wage. On June 18, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed suit against the city, stating that the decision had crossed legal boundaries.

“The question is whether the City of Lincoln can operate as a super-legislature and modify the laws that the Legislature passes on statewide issues,” Hilgers said in a statement. “They can’t, but are trying anyway, so we are forced to sue to uphold the Constitution and state law.”

Begley, who is the president of the Omaha City Council, said he introduced the ordinance in an effort to uphold the will of the voters as expressed in the original ballot initiative.

In 2022, petitioners successfully placed an increase in Nebraska’s minimum wage on the ballot. The measure passed with approximately 59% of the vote. In February 2026, the Nebraska Legislature voted to modify some of the requirements of that increase, allowing workers aged 14 or 15 to be paid a new “youth minimum wage” of $13.50, as well as making adjustments to the mandated cost-of-living increase.

Melton, one of three Republicans on the seven-member council, sees other actions on the table by the city council that she believes will run counter to the law. She specifically pointed to Omaha’s implementation of a “poverty elimination action plan” created in compliance with LB 840, which was passed in 2024.

“Who doesn’t support eliminating poverty?” Melton asked. “But I can tell you in part of that plan, they mention rent control. They mention actual checks and subsidies that the city of Omaha should pay. And again, things that I believe are not legal, not authorized by statute.”

The makeup of the City Council did not change in last year’s city-wide elections, but without Republican Jean Stothert as mayor, the Democrat majority now has a veto-proof majority.

“There’s a change in the city that quite frankly scares me, because I think we’re going to go backwards,” Melton said. “We lost the mayor who could veto the bad bills. And the three of us, we can vote no, but it doesn’t really matter.”

Regardless of the actions taken by the Omaha City Council, its current makeup—as well as the mayor’s office—will likely remain unchanged until the next city-wide election in early 2029.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.