KEJA - Raise the Wage

Kentucky Can Do Better!

Coalition Vistory: Raise the Wage!

Gov. Fletcher signed HB 305 to increase the minimum wage on 3/22/06. "It's something that is long overdue," said Bill Lodrigan of the KY AFL-CIO. Pat Delahanty, from the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, added, "At least no matter what happens on the federal level, Kentuckians are going to be better off."

House Bill 206: Support Tipped Workers

HB 206 would increase the minimum wage for tipped workers to 42% of the minimum wage. The House Labor & Industry Committee unanimously approved the bill on Thurs, Feb 22, sending it to the full House where it awaited a vote.

Restaurant owners would pay servers 3 cents an hour more under the current minimum wage. If minimum wage is raised to $7.25 an hour, the tip credit would increase to $3.05.

Testimony in Support of Raising the Wage

Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, Kentucky Council of Churches testimony

Auset Sesheta, Louisville

Cara Prince, Louisville

KET Online Video of Hearings on HB 305 in the House Labor & Industry Committee 2/15/07

A Short History of House Bill 305 & Efforts to Raise the Wage

Coalition Unites to Raise State Minimum Wage

KEJA is a member of the Kentucky Raise the Wage Coalition, a partnership of faith-based organizations, grassroots organizing groups, labor unions, low-income advocacy organizations, and professional associations working to increase understanding of issues surrounding the minimum wage.

Minimum Wage Outrage

$5.15 an hour has been the minimum wage in Kentucky since the last time it was raised by Congress in 1997. For someone working 40 hours a week, that wage amounts to $206 a week, or $10,712 a year before taxes.

1997 was the same year Kentucky lawmakers linked their earnings to the Consumer Price Index. Nine years later, Kentucky lawmakers' pay has increased around 70%. If lawmakers had linked the minimum wage to the CPI, as they did their salaries, it would now be around $8.75 an hour.

A new KYA Money Matters policy brief indicates that 16% of Kentucky workers, 275,000 Kentuckians, would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $7 an hour. Both men and women would benefit, but women would be more likely to be efffected because of their over representation in low wage occupations.

Learn more about this issue from KFTC. Share this Minimum Wage Fact Sheet with family and friends.

Media Reports & Resources

Kentucky Tonight with Bill Goodman focused on the minimum wage legislation on 12/11/07. Guests included State Representative J. R. Gray, D-Benton; State Representative Bill Farmer, R-Lexington; Ed Monahan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky; and Jan Gould, president of the Kentucky Retail Federation.

Kentucky Tonight also aired a program on the Minimum Wage in July 2006.

An Economic Policy Institute report indicates that the buying power of the minimum wage is at a 51-year old. This and many other reports can be found at the EPI Minimum Wage Issue Guide

The Center for Budget & Policy Priorities has issued a new report, Together, State Minimum Wages and State Earned Income Tax Credits Make Work Pay, about how raising the minimum wage and instituting Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) can be combined to bring working families out of poverty.

This site was last updated on March 23, 2007