Minimum-wage increase heads to Ky. gov

Minimum-wage increase heads to Ky. gov

	Published : Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:02 By : Agencies Print this Story

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Cara Prince is in line for a pay raise under a measure that increases Kentucky's minimum wage.

House and Senate lawmakers approved the raise for more than 100,000 minimum-wage workers. The measure now goes to Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who said he hasn't yet decided whether he will sign it into law.

Prince, one of a group of Kentucky's lowest paid workers who lobbied lawmakers to approve the raise, said she's hopeful the governor will do what she believes is the right thing.

'It would help people like me get a start out of poverty,' Prince said Monday. 'It's not the best, but it's a start.'

The measure was approved 93-5 in the House on Monday. The Senate had passed the measure on a 33-1 vote last week.

Currently, the minimum wage in Kentucky is $5.15 an hour. Under the proposal, it would increase to $5.85 when the legislation takes effect, which would be three months after lawmakers adjourn, $6.55 an hour in July 2008 and $7.25 an hour July 1, 2009.

Bill Londrigan, head of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, said if Fletcher signs the measure, Kentucky's minimum-wage workers would get their first raise in more than a decade.

'We are extremely gratified that the House and Senate approved the long-overdue increase,' Londrigan said. 'It is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do.'

Fletcher said he was unsure whether he would sign the legislation, because he and his general counsel hadn't yet reviewed the plan. Fletcher said he wanted to consider the economic impact increasing the minimum wage would have, and how it would affect jobs and small businesses.

'It was supported in a bipartisan way, and I think it's likely, as we look at that, that we'll be able to sign that,' Fletcher said.

The measure's approval comes after the House concurred with a technical change made in the Senate.

Kentucky's plan to raise its minimum wage comes as Congress is pondering a similar move.

Prince, who takes jobs through a temporary employment agency, said some lawmakers had been too concerned about how the measure would affect businesses.

'They seem more concerned about how it affects employers than how it affects employees,' she said.