A lot has changed in Kansas in the past 15 years, but not the minimum wage.
With inflation wearing down purchasing power and the cost of living on the rise, Kansans watch as Missouri bumps its minimum wage to $12.30 an hour. The last time Kansas raised its minimum wage was in 2008, from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour.
At $7.25/hour workers earn $15,080 per year. At $15,000/yr, 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/hour; a figure more comparable to the global extreme index of $2.15/day set by the World Bank.
Early last year, Senator 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 have increased the tipped minimum wage from its current rate of $2.13 an hour to $3.25 an hour.
But not everyone supports the bill. Senator John Doll (R) from the Garden City area agreed that workers should make a livable wage but warned increasing the 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.”