KEJA - Raise the Wage HB 305 History

Kentucky Can Do Better!

Raise the Wage!

A Short History of House Bill 305

KEJA is a founding member of the Kentucky Raise the Wage Coalition.

Nov. 16, 2006: The Kentucky Raise the Wage Coalition was joined by Democratic lawmakers, including Jody Richards, Speaker of the House, and other House leaders, to urge passage of state legislation to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7 effective July 1, to index the minimum wage so it would rise automatically with inflation, and to include tipped workers at the same hourly rate. That legislation became House Bill 305. The Louisville Courier Journal had a full story.

Feb. 15, 2007: Coalition members testified in support of HB 305 in the House Labor & Industry Committee. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported on the hearing.

Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper testified: If we unite to help our working poor, then our Commonwealth will prosper. If we continue to keep the working poor in their poverty, Kentucky will never get out of its last place rankings among the states in so many categories."

Unfortunately House Leadership stripped HB 305 of the features that would most help Kentucky's working people: an immediate raise in the minimum wage; indexing; and increasing the minimum wage for tipped workers.

KEJA supports HB 305 as a very modest step in improving the lives of Kentuckians while calling on Speaker Richards and House Leadership to explain their actions. KEJA also supports HB 206 which would raise the wages of tipped workers to at least 40% of the minimum wage.

"This simple bill is trying to right a major injustice, to the poorest, most vulnerable people in this state," said Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, who strongly supported the provisions in the orginal version of HB 305.

March 6, 2007: A Senate panel approved increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years, but a provision dealing with economic development that was added onto the bill might prevent its ultimate passage. Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, objected to the new provision, not to raising the minimum wage. "The committee substitute appears to be designed to kill the bill," he said. Lexington Herald-Leader

March 8, 2007: An editorial in the Lexington Herald-Leader stated that this new Senate provision helps employers who get to keep paying poverty level wages after the minimum wage increase, but "the biggest beneficiary is probably the Cabinet for Ecoonomic Development, which the amendment's sponsor said suggested the change. Cabinet officials could keep doing what they've always done: throwing public funds at cheap employers and their cheap jobs."

March 8, 2007: Advocates for low-income workers celebrated the Senate's 33-1 vote for HB 305, which could lead to the state's first minimum-wage increase in a decade and make Kentucky the 31st state with a higher minimum wage than the federal one. The Senate bill includes wage breaks for companies receiving economic development incentives. Lexington Herald-Leader and Louisville Courier-Journal

March 22, 2007: Gov. Fletcher signs HB 305 into law. Kentucky becomes the 31rst state to raise the minimum wage above the federal level.

Raise Wage poster

This site was last updated on March 23, 2007