Thank you Commissioners. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today about the Unified Government’s proposed ordinance to raise the minimum wage in Kansas City, Kansas.

My name is Heidi Zeller and I’m organizing Kansas Action Network’s campaign to “Raise the Wage” in Kansas. KAN is a statewide coalition for workers’ rights, social justice and economic fairness, with 30 member organizations representing over 250,000 Kansans throughout the state. Raise the Wage is designed to increase the lowest state minimum wage in the nation through a coordinated, city-by-city campaign.

We have been pursuing this local approach because of the inability to pass a wage increase at the state level year after year. It has now been 20 years that the Kansas minimum wage has been stuck at $2.65 an hour, and a few months ago, the Kansas Legislature let another year go by without raising the state wage. So we appreciate and whole-heartedly support the initiative taken by the Unified Government to propose raising the minimum wage in Kansas City and helping Kansas workers who are struggling at the lowest end of the wage spectrum.

Last July, Congress raised the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour. Over 100,000 workers in Kansas got a raise back then. But, according to the Kansas Department of Labor, at least 17,000 even lower-wage workers did not get a raise because they were covered by the Kansas minimum wage law.

As a study by the Kansas-based Ad Astra Institute shows, there are several categories of Kansas workers who can be legally paid less than the federal minimum wage, including workers whose employers gross under $500,000 annually and aren’t engaged in interstate commerce, companions for the elderly or infirm, workers at small newspapers and workers on small farms.(1)   Working year-round at $2.65 an hour would net a full-time worker an annual income of less than $6,000 a year.  That’s less than a third of what it would take for a single mother with two children to reach the federal poverty level in 2008.(2)  In our view, this is unacceptable.

The point of our campaign is to ensure that no Kansas workers slip through the cracks of an outdated and unjust minimum wage.  But research has shown that paying decent wages has positive economic effects not just for workers, but across the board:  workers benefit because they can better support their families without relying on social service agencies, local merchants benefit because those workers are spending more dollars in their communities by necessity, employers save money through reduced employee turnover and a more productive workforce, and, overall, the economy gets a boost.

Opponents often argue that raising the wage will cause unemployment - that employers won’t be able to afford the increased labor costs and will therefore have to lay off their employees. Opponents tend to hold up small businesses as poster children, saying they will be especially harmed, unable to compete with large businesses, and may fail altogether.

In reality, substantial research has found no job loss resulting from increases in the minimum wage. In the four years after the last Federal minimum wage increase of 1996-97, the economy experienced its strongest growth in over three decades. Even when the economy is struggling, as it did in 1990-91, minimum wage increases have not been found to cost jobs.

As for the situation of small businesses, research has found that they can absorb and benefit from a minimum wage increase just as big businesses can. In fact, the number of small businesses grew faster in higher minimum wage states than in states with a minimum of $5.15 an hour. Additionally, the number of employees in small establishments grew almost twice as fast in higher minimum wage states.(3)

Critics sometimes deny all of this – but 31 states have set their minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, and 140 cities have passed living wage ordinances, because they see benefits all around.  Our campaign is inspired in part by evidence from these other states and cities, which suggests that raising the minimum wage is a win/win/win situation…for workers, businesses, and local economies.

Thank you for your attention to the important issue of wage fairness. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.
Footnotes
1. Ad Astra Institute of Kansas, “Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases in Kansas: A Background Report” (2007)
2. As of February 2008,  the poverty line is $17,600 for a family of three, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  (http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/08poverty.shtml)
3. Fiscal Policy Institute,  “States with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth” (2006)

PULLING APART: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends
by Jared Bernstein, Elizabeth McNichol, and Andrew Nicholas

“The gap between the richest and poorest families…grew significantly in most states over the past two decades…In fact, the nation’s longstanding trend of grwoing inequality accelerated since the late 1990s as incomes fell for poor families in a number of states.”

Specific data on Kansas…

Gains for Rich Families Outpaced Gains for Poor Families

Between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s:

• The average income of the poorest fifth of families did not change significantly.
• The average income of the middle fifth of families increased by $5,775, from $44,635 to $50,410. This is an increase of $340 per year.
• The average income of the richest fifth of families increased by $37,756, from $90,207 to $127,963. This is an increase of $2,221 per year.
  

For more info visit the Center’s website : www.cbpp.org

Good:

“State Republicans Vote to Exploit Minimum Wage Workers,” Iola Register, by the editor and publisher, Emerson Lynn Jr.

More good:

Letter: “Fair wage helps all,” Topeka Capital-Journal, by Claude Lee, a retired judge from the Kansas Department of Labor

Bad:

“Inconvenient truth about minimum wage,” Lawrence Journal-World, by Mark Hirschey, professor of business at the University of Kansas

If this bill is going to survive the session, we need an immediate showing of community support! We are asking all of you who support this cause to contact the Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee right away and respectfully ask that Senate Bill 466 be passed out of committee THIS WEEK! We already have the support of Senators Kelly and Barone, and obviously Senator Reitz, who proposed the bill. If you can, please contact the others as well. (contact list below)

Bills that begin in either Legislative House or the other must be considered and passed by their House of Origin (in this case the Senate) and sent to the other House for consideration no later than Saturday March 1st (also known as the “Turnaround date”). Bills not passed by their House of Origin by that date are essentially defeated for this session and would have to be rewritten and re-introduced the following year. Holding the bill in Committee past the turnaround date would effectively killing it for this session without forcing Legislators to go on record by voting it up or down.

A few phone calls/emails will only take minutes of your time.

Thank you!

The Chair of the Kansas Senate Commerce Committee:

Senator Karin Brownlee (R) D-23
Room Number 121 East
State Capitol -136-N Topeka, KS 66612-1504
(785)-296-7358
HOTLINE: 1-800-432-3924
FAX: (785)-368-7119
EMAIL:brownlee@senate.state.ks.us

R - Roger P Reitz – Member, Manhattan
Sponsor of SB 466; Co-sponsored SB 337 in 2007
Capitol Office
Room: 261E
Phone: 785-296-7360
Email: reitz@senate.state.ks.us

R - Nick Jordan - Co-Chair, Shawnee
Capitol Office
Room: 221E
Phone: 785-296-7362
Email: jordan@senate.state.ks.us

D - Laura Kelly – Member, Topeka
Capitol Office
Room: 401S
Phone: 785-296-7365
Email: kelly@senate.state.ks.us

R - Ruth Teichman – Member, Stafford
Capitol Office
Room: 241E
Phone: 785-296-7394
Email: teichman@senate.state.ks.us

R - Susan Wagle – Member, Wichita
Capitol Office
Room: 221E
Phone: 785-296-7386
Email: wagle@senate.state.ks.us

R - Jean Kurtis Schodorf – Member, Wichita
Capitol Office
Room: 241E
Phone: 785-296-7391
Email: schodorf@senate.state.ks.us

R - Jay Scott Emler – Member, Lindsborg
Capitol Office
Room: 449N
Phone: 785-296-7354
Email: emler@senate.state.ks.us

D - Jim Barone - Ranking Minority, Frontenac
Capitol Office
Room: 181E
Phone: 785-296-7370
Email: barone@senate.state.ks.us

The Kansas minimum wage of $2.65 per hour applies to workers in job categories not protected by the Federal minimum wage ($5.85). The study documents this under-examined category of workers at the lowest end of the wage spectrum.

To help determine how minimum wage increases would affect Kansas businesses and local economies, the study draws on evidence from states and cities that have raised their minimum wages above the Federal level. Such locally driven increases became common over the past decade, due largely to the stagnation of the Federal minimum wage at $5.15 an hour. Eroded by inflation, and having lost nearly 20% of its purchasing power, the Federal minimum was finally increased in July 2007 to $5.85 an hour. Even so, 33 states have already raised their statewide minimum wages above the current $5.85 level.

Selected findings:

o Kansas has the lowest minimum wage in the nation. The Kansas law has no effect on workers covered by the federal law, but covers certain employees exempt from the federal law. These include childcare workers, companions to the elderly or infirm, and employees of private firms grossing less than $500,000/year and not engaged in interstate commerce.

o A total of 17,000 Kansas workers received less than the $5.15 minimum wage in 2006. Researchers note that this figure will have risen as a result of the recent Federal minimum wage increase. There are an unknown number of workers not covered by federal law who received between $5.15 and $5.85 an hour.

o A minimum wage increase would have no substantial long-term effects on output, employment or profits. Short-run adjustments in prices, made by businesses reliant on low-wage workers, are likely to be much too small to have significant impacts on the overall price levels, and will not cause an ongoing inflationary spiral. The long-term benefits of greater consumer purchasing power, higher sales tax revenue, less turnover and absenteeism, a more productive workforce and a higher overall cash flow in the local economy are likely to compensate for a modest wage increase among the lowest paid workers in the Kansas economy.

o Historically, there has been a correlation between minimum wage increases and economic development. The Fiscal Policy Institute found that, in the five years following the Federal minimum wage increase of 1996-97, small businesses actually grew faster in states with higher minimum wages than in states with lower minimum wages (small businesses are defined as having fewer than 50 employees).

o In 2004 Kansas had an estimated 300,000 persons in poverty – about 100,000 of whom were children and 30,000 of whom were over 65. More than 20,000 (of working age) had severe disabilities and did not work.

The Ad Astra study was commissioned by the Kansas Action Network (KAN), a coalition for workers’ rights, social justice and economic fairness. KAN board member, Tawny Stottlemire, noted that, “Kansans have always valued a strong work ethic and believed that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’re going to be able to earn a decent living. Today, our state poverty rate of 12.5% exceeds the national average and our state minimum wage is less than half that of the Federal minimum wage. These realities are way out of sync with the values of our citizenry.”

KAN is currently engaged in a statewide campaign to “Raise the Wage” in Kansas. The project is coordinating campaigns in Wichita, Kansas City and Topeka, and at the state level. Stottlemire added that, “Without an adequate state minimum wage in place, there will be workers who slip through the cracks. Kansas needs to protect and value all of its workers. As long as there is a state law allowing employers to pay $2.65 per hour – some will. None should.”

Download Ad Astra Institute’s full report >>

“Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases in Kansas: A Background Report”

For more information contact Heidi Zeller, the KAN organizer for Raise the Wage, at 785.760.2764 or raisethewagekansas@gmail.com. Additional information about the campaign is available at www.raisethewagekansas.org. For more information on KAN, visit www.ksactionnet.org.

The Lawrence-based Ad Astra Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit think tank dedicated to promoting the health and prosperity of Kansas families and the communities in which they live. Inspired by the Kansas state motto, Ad Astra Per Aspera (’to the stars through difficulties’), AAI believes the challenges facing our state can be met with solutions that are both pragmatic and progressive. adastrainstitute.org.

Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation
3219 W. Central
Wichita, KS 67203

2212 E. Central, Wichita 67214

Thursday, November 1:

6:30 p.m.
Raise the Wage general meeting

Our Steering Committee will meet one hour earlier at the same location.

Additionally, Kansas Action Network will hold its next board & general meeting beginning at 1:00pm, also at KANSEL. All Raise the Wage participants are welcome to attend.

Below that, see related story, “Kansans make more than Oklahoma, Nebraska peers” (Oct. 18)
The many comments posted to the online version take issue with the claim stated in its title.

Minimum wage may turn into city issue

BY DAN VOORHIS
The Wichita Eagle

A coalition of labor and community groups has gathered more than 1,300 signatures in an attempt to create a Wichita minimum wage.They will present the petition to the Wichita City Council at some point in the future in hopes it will pass an ordinance mandating a wage to match the federal minimum wage.

The move would apply only to the relatively few workers who are not covered by the federal minimum wage law and, instead, are covered by the state minimum wage — the nation’s lowest at $2.65 an hour.

The Kansas Department of Labor estimates that about 27,000 Kansans are paid below the federal minimum wage, which rose to $5.85 an hour in July on its way to $7.25 in 2009.

Jake Lowen, director of the Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation, said groups are going local because the Kansas Legislature failed to raise the state minimum wage last spring.

“The people in Topeka didn’t do anything for the people of Kansas,” Lowen said. “Somebody has to stand up for what’s right.”

Heidi Zeller, an organizer for Kansas Action Network — a coalition of Wichita and Kansas labor, church and community groups — said proponents will approach council members to argue their case.

“There is tremendous evidence that this can really help the economy,” she said.

But any local minimum wage would face legal and political hurdles.

Municipal law experts disagree on whether the council has the authority to impose a minimum wage on private employers.

Wichita City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf said the council does not have such authority.

Michael Heim, a state attorney who helps write bills for the Legislature and teaches classes on municipal law, said the law is unclear, but that the council probably could approve such a measure under its home-rule powers.

“It’s kind of breaking new ground,” said Sandy Jacquot, general counsel for the League of Kansas Municipalities.

And the effort would face a political challenge as well. Several council members said they wanted to know more before making any decisions.

“I would have to be convinced that it was needed,” said District 2 council member Sue Schlapp.

District 4 council member Paul Gray said he already had made up his mind.

“I don’t feel any justification to raise the minimum wage,” he said. “The market dictates that.”

Kansans make more than Oklahoma, Nebraska peers

BY HURST LAVIANA
The Wichita Eagle

Kara Abdallah makes $7 an hour as a cashier at a Wichita sporting goods store. That’s slightly less than the statewide average of $7.90 for cashiers, among the state’s lowest paid workers.“It’s not bad,” the Wichita State University junior said of her part-time job. “I mean I’d like to make more of course, but it’s good enough for now. It’s all right for college.”

In addition to ranking cashiers among the lowest paid, the 2007 Kansas Wage Survey released Wednesday by the Kansas Department of Labor showed that as a whole, Kansas workers earn a little more than their counterparts in Oklahoma and Nebraska.

They earn slightly less than workers in Missouri and Colorado, according to the report.

The report also pointed out regional differences within the state, with Wichita workers generally earning more than workers in Topeka but less than workers in Kansas City.

Secretary of Labor Jim Garner said the survey is designed to help businesses ensure that they are paying competitive wages and to direct workers to the best-paying jobs.

The data released Wednesday is based on surveys of 5,000 employers who are subject to Kansas unemployment insurance laws.

The figures show that sales clerks, cashiers and registered nurses are the most common jobs available to Kansas workers.

The highest hourly wages, $90.91, are paid to obstetricians and gynecologists, the report said. The lowest hourly wages are paid to fast food cooks, $6.81, and food counter attendants, $6.85.

Among the workers at the low end of the scale is Tze Tan, an international student at Wichita State who earns $6 an hour at a food service counter. He said the job helps him pay for food and miscellaneous expenses while he finishes his degree in business.

When he graduates next spring, he said, he hopes to stay in Wichita, even if it means passing up a better-paying job in the Kansas City area.

“I like Wichita a lot,” he said. “It’s not as expensive as Kansas City.”

Case Bell said he earns $10 an hour as a social service worker who specializes in the education of homeless adolescents.

Although he already has a bachelor’s degree, Bell said he is hoping to eventually earn a doctorate in international development.

After getting his doctorate, he said, he’d probably consider relocating outside the Wichita area, “for job satisfaction but not more pay,” he said.

“I’m not a very material person.”

WASHINGTON - People who tend to the elderly, change diapers and serve up food and drinks have the highest rates of depression among U.S. workers.

Overall, 7 percent of full-time workers battled depression in the past year, according to a government report available Saturday.

Women were more likely than men to have had a major bout of depression, and younger workers had higher rates of depression than their older colleagues.

Almost 11 percent of personal care workers - which includes child care and helping the elderly and severely disabled with their daily needs - reported depression lasting two weeks or longer.

During such episodes there is loss of interest and pleasure, and at least four other symptoms surface, including problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration and self-image.

Workers who prepare and serve food - cooks, bartenders, waiters and waitresses - had the second highest rate of depression among full-time employees at 10.3 percent.

In a tie for third were health care workers and social workers at 9.6 percent.

The lowest rate of depression, 4.3 percent, occurred in the job category that covers engineers, architects and surveyors.

Government officials tracked depression within 21 major occupational categories. They combined data from 2004 through 2006 to estimate episodes of depression within the past year. That information came from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which registers lifetime and past-year depression bouts.

Depression leads to $30 billion to $44 billion in lost productivity annually, said the report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The report was available Saturday on the agency’s Web site at http://oas.samhsa.gov

The various job categories tracked could be quite broad, with employees grouped in the same category seemingly having little in common.

For example, one category included workers in the arts, media, entertainment and sports. In the personal care category, a worker caring for toddlers at a daycare center would have quite a different job from a nursing aide who helps an older person live at home rather than in a nursing home.

Just working full-time would appear to be beneficial in preventing depression. The overall rate of depression for full-time workers, 7 percent, compares with the 12.7 percent rate registered by those who are unemployed.