Top Democrats, including the governor, proposed Wednesday raising Kansas’ hourly minimum wage to $15 in response to Republicans’ plan to eliminate taxes on tips.
The announcement from Democrats came on the heels of a news conference Monday held by Senate President Ty Masterson, who was joined by state and federal Republican lawmakers, to promote a proposal to eliminate state income tax on tips for service and hospitality workers. The proposal mimics a federal one that attempts to exempt tips from federal income tax for restaurant workers, servers, valets, bellhops, bartenders and caddies.
“President Masterson’s proposal will do nothing to make eggs more affordable for Kansans — so we’re proposing something that will. Raising the minimum wage to $15 will put more money in people’s pockets,” said a joint statement from Gov. Laura Kelly, Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes and House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard.
“There is no reason workers in Kansas should make less than workers in Missouri,” they said.
Missouri voters in November approved a plan to raise minimum wage to $13.75 per hour starting Jan. 1, 2025, and to $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2026. The rate is set to increase with inflation.
The Kansas Democrats’ proposal would more than double the state’s current hourly rate of $7.25, or about $15,600 annually, which hasn’t changed since 2010 when it was raised from $2.65.
House Bill 2151 is co-sponsored by 22 Democrats. A draft of a Senate bill, which does not yet have a bill number, sets a start date of the minimum wage change as Jan. 1, 2026, and would codify yearly increases to the state’s minimum wage beginning in 2027 based on the cost of living.
Currently, tipped employees in Kansas make a base wage of $2.13 an hour, and tips are meant to cover the difference between the base and the minimum wage of $7.25. Employers are required by law to pay the difference if tips don’t cover it. The Senate bill draft proposes changing tipped employees’ base hourly wage to $7.50, or half of the proposed minimum wage. The bill draft names Sens. Ethan Corson of Prairie Village, Cindy Holscher of Overland Park, Pat Pettey of Kansas City, Kansas, Patrick Schmidt of Topeka and Sykes of Lenexa as sponsors.
“We’re open to a discussion about cutting taxes on tips,” the Democrats’ statement said. “Still, the most important thing we can do for minimum wage workers is actually raise the minimum wage — which is embarrassingly low in Kansas.”
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Story by Tim Carpenter / Kansas Reflector
