Kansas City's minimum wage would rise under draft ordinance

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City's minimum wage would rise to $13 an hour over eight years under a measure passed Thursday out of a council committee, setting up a possible vote next week.

Low-wage workers, with backing from some religious and labor leaders, are demanding more pay, pushing their case with a rolling hunger strike in which participants take turns going 24 hours without eating. Fast-food worker Melinda Robinson, who began fasting Thursday morning, said working mothers such as her deserve to "give their kids what they need."

But business groups opposing the minimum-wage increases question their legality. And Bud Nicol, the executive director of the Hotel and Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City, said after the meeting the "dramatic and drastic" pay increases would "have a crippling effect on business development."

Council members have made no recommendations on whether the measure should be approved when they consider it again July 16.

Under the draft ordinance, workers would receive their first raise Aug. 24, when businesses with more than 15 employees and $500,000 in annual income would be required to begin paying at least $8.50 an hour. The minimum wage would rise again to $9.15 an hour in January 2017 and be followed by annual increases to $9.80, $10.45, $11.10, $11.75, $12.40 and finally $13 an hour in 2023. Cost-of-living adjustments would be made in subsequent years.

The state's minimum wage is $7.65, while the federal minimum has remained at $7.25 since 2009.