Governors Lock In Wage Hikes

States are rewriting statutory ‘off‑ramps’ that pause automatic minimum‑wage increases when jobs fall, by raising the technical threshold and averaging job changes so freezes rarely trigger. New York’s governor proposed switching to a median of 3/6/12‑month job‑change measures and a 0.25% loss threshold — a change that would require a Great‑Recession‑scale downturn to pause hikes. — If replicated, this design shift removes countercyclical safeguards from wage laws and makes wage increases politically and administratively guaranteed, with implications for employment, inflation, and executive oversight.