House panel OKs bill raising state minimum wage

[Doondoo]

Kentucky's lowest-wage workers would get a pay raise under a bill approved by a House panel on Thursday that would raise the state minimum wage.

The version that cleared the Labor and Industry Committee on a 14-2 vote was stripped of a couple of provisions backed by labor advocates.

Under the revised bill, Kentucky's minimum wage would increase from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 at the time the legislation took effect. The minimum wage would go to $6.55 an hour beginning July 1, 2008, and to $7.25 an hour the following July 1.

Committee chairman J.R. Gray, D-Benton, said that version mirrors the federal minimum-wage boost currently being considered in Congress.


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