TOPEKA, Kan. — A lot has changed in Kansas since 2009. The minimum wage, however, hasn’t.
With inflation eroding purchasing power and the cost of living increasing, Kansans watch as Missouri bumps its minimum wage to $12.30. The last time Kansas raised its minimum wage was in 2008 from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, KSNT reports.
At $7.25 per hour, minimum wage workers earn $15,080 per year. At $15,000 per year, Kansans earn 3.5 times less than the annual living wage in Kansas of $54,601, falling into 2022 poverty thresholds set by the U.S. Census Bureau.
On the national level in 2022, the poverty threshold for a single person under 65 years old was $15,230.
Workers who earn tips in Kansas earn a federal minimum wage of $2.13 per hour, a figure more comparable to the global extreme index of $2.15 per day set by the World Bank.
In early 2023, state Sen. Ethan Corson, D-Fairway, introduced Senate Bill 70. If passed, the bill would have increased the state’s minimum wage to $10 by Jan. 1, 2024, and then by $2 annually until reaching $16 in 2027. It would also increase the tipped minimum wage from its current rate of $2.13 an hour to $3.25 an hour.
“The pandemic has spotlighted the important contributions low-wage workers make to our state,” Corson said last year.
“These are the people who make sure the grocery shelves are stocked and our loved ones are cared for. There is dignity in all work, and that means all workers should earn a living wage. The bottom line is that no Kansan who works full-time should live in poverty.”
But not everyone supports the bill.
State Sen. John Doll agreed that workers should make a livable wage, but warned increasing minimum wage is a double-edged sword. He said when wages go up, so does the cost of goods. He was worried it could lead to another cycle of inflation.
“A person that’s working and has a full-time job should get a livable wage,” Doll said last year. “But on the other side of the coin, that’s why we’re paying a lot more for Big Macs and Quarter Pounders with Cheese, you know. It’s hard to get a cheap meal.”