Kansas legislators have found a way to raise their salaries — through an independent agency that investigates per diems and retirement benefits.
Reportedly, the nine-member, independent body will prevent lawmakers from appearing to be feathering their own nest, which needs some feathering. Legislative pay has been frozen for about 20 years at $88.66 per day plus an additional $157 per day for food and lodging. Kansas lawmakers deserve a raise, but so do many of their constituents.
In fact, whenever lawmakers – state or federal – raise, we must also raise the minimum wage. Although the legislative body exists to serve the people, the broad masses of the working class do not adequately represent their interests in our state bodies.
The mere suggestion of an upward adjustment to the minimum wage, which now stands at $7.25 an hour, draws screams and shouts from politicians more sympathetic to business owners than the needs of less affluent constituents.
To be fair, some caution is warranted.
Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State’s Center for Economic Development, said any sudden or dramatic changes to the minimum wage should be discouraged. Short-term benefits to low-income earners could give way to inflationary pressures, Hill said. But he’s not outright opposed to a minimum wage bump.
“Overall, the minimum wage has been below inflation-adjusted levels over time,” Hill said. “Given the economic situation, raising the minimum wage is reasonable.”
Hill also said that most economists agree that politicians should be removed from the decision-making process.
“An automated process would be preferred,” Hill said.
Agreed.
A proposed third-party committee on legislative salaries will prepare a report in December that legislators can support or reject.
There is an aristocracy, especially here in Kansas where lawmakers earn $22,000 a year by taking a vow of poverty to perform civic service. But perhaps we’re getting what we paid for: political leadership is staggering with four or five trans athletes in our population of nearly 2 million, ignoring public health care needs and juvenile justice reform.
There is an aristocracy, especially here in Kansas where lawmakers earn $22,000 a year by taking a vow of poverty to perform civic service. But perhaps we’re getting what we paid for: political leadership is staggering with four or five trans athletes in our population of nearly 2 million, ignoring public health care needs and juvenile justice reform.
No current MP can serve on this independent panel, although at least two members must be former MLAs. No current legislative staff or lobbyists could serve.
This sounds like the kind of sensible governance we can always hope for, not just when the legislature’s livelihood is at stake. We must eliminate politics from many areas of civic life, including Since 1938, the federal government has become a political issue regarding the base, hourly wages, and how many workers receive the minimum.
how?
Whenever there is talk of raising the minimum wage, opponents say it will kill jobs.
While that statement may be true, according to epi.org, the average top CEO compensation ratio was 351 to 1 in 2020, 61 to 1 in 1989, and 21 to 1 in 1965.
How many jobs are we losing within that low-street-capitalism ratio?
Employers can pay tipped employees $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus tips equals the federal minimum wage. It doesn’t seem fair.
Most of our systems favor the powerful at the expense of the poor. In fact, legal activist Brian Stevenson has said that our criminal justice system treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.
So, as Hill and others say, politics should be removed from the equation.
“Political interference causes problems,” Hill said.
bumping the minimum wage into any pay or benefit bump for state or federal legislators would make our system fairer, more equitable and more representative. At this point, working-class fairness has proven elusive. We should not confuse the minimum wage with the real living wage, for example.
That’s why they like groups Fight for $15 A global movement has formed in more than 300 cities on six continents. Low-wage employers make billions of dollars in profits while leaving people “struggling to survive” the jobs they need, according to its website.
Now the minimum wage does not increase automatically. Congress must pass the bill, which the president signs into law. At the state level, legislators must do the same, and the bill will be signed by Gov. Laura Kelly.
But if lawmakers can figure out how to raise themselves — deservedly or not — without political consequences, then surely they can figure out what brings more fairness to the current minimum wage for the working-class legions they represent.
Mark McCormick is the former executive director of the Kansas African American Museum, a member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, and deputy executive director at the ACLU of Kansas. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of those affected by public policies or excluded from the public debate. Find information here, including how to submit your comments.
