Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo is sponsoring legislation that would raise the state's minimum wage. House Bill 1 would raise the rate from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour over three years.
Stumbo says the increase is needed to keep wages in line with inflation, and would help struggling working-class families across the Commonwealth.
“There needs to be something done to help level the playing field for people who work for minimum wage,” said Stumbo. “It needs to be raised, it’s not been raised since 2009, it’s been eroded obviously by inflation and cost-of-living, so, you’re gonna hear us talk about issues that deal with real, live, working Kentucky families, and try to make their lives easier and better.”
With a full time job, $7.25 an hour brings in $15,000 a year. Stumbo says that's not enough, and his raise would give full-time minimum wage workers about $21,000 a year.
“There’s been studies that show that small business owners agree that raising the minimum wage stimulates the economy, it makes for a better workplace.”
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers has indicated he would not support the plan.
The bill will also incorporate language from Louisville Rep. Mary Lou Marzian. It would create pay equity between men and women. Currently, women in Kentucky earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
