Floyd: The devil is in the details for proposed minimum wage legislation
By DAVID FLOYD
50th State Representative
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 9 a.m. — We have before us House Bill 2, an act relating to wages. The bill addresses two separate issues: the minimum wage; and what they are calling “Equal Pay for Equal Work.” Here’s the rest of the story, and let’s begin with the minimum wage.
MINIMUM WAGE. Back in the 2007 legislative session, your General Assembly voted to incrementally increase the hourly minimum wage in Kentucky to $7.25 so that we would conform to the identical, previously-enacted federal minimum wage increase. Key to the bill’s passage in both chambers was a compromise – a provision for automatic increases in the minimum wage to match any future federal increase. I voted for the measure in part because the bill also settled, once and for all, future increases to our minimum wage.
At least, we thought it had settled the matter. The 2007 compromise would have accommodated any increase in the cost of living that was recognized by our federal government. But in the 2014 session the House majority ignored the earlier compromise and proposed a new increase to Kentucky’s minimum wage, to $10.10 an hour, far exceeding the rate of inflation. Why would they betray the earlier compromise? Politics; they were anticipating a tough 2014 general election, and minimum wage hikes are popular with the voters.
EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all that was in that bill. The other key provision had nothing to do with minimum wage, but was for what they called “Equal Pay for Equal Work.” If you read the bill carefully, you’d have seen a perverse distortion. The “equal pay” provision of the minimum wage bill would no longer apply to a single employer. It would apply across all occupations at all locations in the state, even though the work was “dissimilar;” in other words, not the same work. Current law reads, “No employer shall discriminate between employees in the same establishment on the basis of sex…” The revision would read. “No employer shall discriminate between employees in this state on the basis of sex…” Further, it defined “Equivalent” jobs as “occupations that are dissimilar but whose requirements are equivalent, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.”
An example of the bill’s impact (as described on the House floor by a key bill sponsor) is that every employer would have to pay the same wage for a Licensed Practical Nurse (anywhere in Kentucky) as for a skilled electrician (anywhere in Kentucky); it could, roughly, triple the pay of an LPN – or lower the pay of the electrician.
It’s reasonable that an employer pay the same wage to anyone of his/her own employees based on training, ability, and experience. Thus, a man or woman with 10 years on the job as (for example) a line assembler should receive the same wage. Not only is that reasonable, it is the law in Kentucky, expressed in sections of KRS 337. It’s mind-boggling that a Kentucky lawmaker would contemplate dictating the pay of every worker in the state, regardless of occupation or location.
The “Equal Pay for Dissimilar Work” portion of the 2014 bill was not a serious effort. It was a political ploy by the House majority so that they could have talking points in the 2014 election for an electorate unfamiliar with the truth behind the bill.
The same bill is back this year in House Bill 2. I’ll take them seriously on the minimum wage section of the bill, even though our 2007 compromise remains the law in Kentucky. HB 2 proposes once again to increase the minimum wage (across three years) to $10.10 per hour.
MAJORITY REJECTS COMPROMISE. Our minority caucus sought to accomplish through a floor amendment to HB 2 what the majority intended, but in a less drastic way. If your intent is to keep pace with inflation, then take our current minimum wage and index it for inflation from the current $7.25. Our amendment to HB 2 would account for recent inflation by immediately making the new minimum wage $8.00 per hour. And from then on, Kentucky’s minimum wage would be increased annually by a percentage equal to the increase in the consumer price index.
A reasonable compromise. It accomplishes all that the House majority wants to do to keep pace with inflation. But our amendment was rejected along party lines, because… well, you probably know the answer to that. HB 2 now rests in the Senate.
COFFEE WITH DAVE. I always enjoy hearing from you. Call me at home or come see us Saturday; we’ll be at the Bloomfield Library for “Coffee with Dave.” We start at 9:00, and I hope to see you there.
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