By Joan von Kampen| Editor-in-chief
Voters in 2022 approved using the Consumer Price Index to calculate minimum wage increases starting in 2027. Lawmakers this spring instead locked the annual increases at 1.75%. Predictability was the key consideration in that decision.
State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln, center, talks with state Sens. Paul Strommen of Sidney and Kathleen Kauth of Omaha on May 28, 2025. Raybould sponsored a measure to slow down voter-approved minimum wage increases while Strommen sponsored a measure to modify voter-guaranteed paid sick leave for most Nebraska employees. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LABOR & GROWTH
By Zach Wendling
Legislative changes this year to annual bumps in Nebraska’s minimum wage mean workers’ increase next year will be 29 cents less than what voters approved in 2022.
New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released this month indicates a 3.6% annual rise in the Consumer Price Index for goods and services between August 2025 and August 2026 for the Midwest region. That’s the indicator voters approved to calculate minimum wage bumps beginning in 2027, after Nebraska’s minimum wage hit $15 this year.
Lawmakers this spring instead locked the annual increase at 1.75%.
Photos of a farmer-owned wind farm near Petersburg, Nebraska, in Boone County. (Courtesy of Nebraska Farmers Union)
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
By Juan Salinas II
Nebraska U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, urging the Trump administration to push China for more market access for U.S. agricultural products and ensure it upholds existing commitments.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in the U.S. this week to meet with President Donald Trump for a three-day summit.
COMMENTARY
By Jon Cannon
Lowering property taxes is not easy, and the simplest-sounding solutions come with hard compromises for our communities. When property tax revenue declines, so does the funding available for the local services and investments that shape our daily lives.
Cameron the “Capitol Cat” sits inside the vestibule of the south entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol on Nov. 24, 2025. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
By Zach Wendling
State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward and former state Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln will again present the idea to honor Cameron the “Capitol Cat” to the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission this Friday. The commission is not yet voting on whether to greenlight the statue.
“We have incorporated the feedback provided to us by the committee as well as community members (many who are part of Cameron’s growing fan club) and are excited about the updated proposal we are coming to Friday’s meeting with,” Wishart said in a Wednesday text.
D.C. BUREAU
By Jennifer Shutt
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly indicated during a Wednesday hearing he may order the Trump administration to reinstate White House press passes for reporters from three news organizations who had their credentials revoked this weekend.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
COMMENTARY
‘Silly season’ moving right along| George Ayoub
EDITOR'S CHOICE
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