Category Archives: Welfare

Can Kansas capitalize on its puny minimum wage?

Nov. 23, 20061:02 a.m.

Talk of the minimum wage is all the rage these days, what with six states having voted this month to hike theirs and the Democrats vowing to raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum as one of the first acts of their new Democratic Congress.
Then there is Kansas.
Kansas’ $2.65-an-hour minimum wage is now the lowest in the nation, with Kansas the only state to have a wage lower than the feds’ $5.15 (if you don’t count the U.S. Virgin Islands or the six states without minimum wages). True, Kansas’ embarrassing wage is mostly symbolic, because the state minimum does not apply to workers who come under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Still, Kansas’ minimum wage certainly stands out from the crowd, as this map shows. While it may not be much of a welcome mat for potential workers, maybe it will signal businesses in the mood to relocate or expand that Kansas is their kind of low-cost state. Or maybe state lawmakers will finally follow the lead of state Rep. Ted Powers, R-Mulvane, by doing the right thing and raising it.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Welfare | Comments (60)

As Clinton turns 60, welfare reform turns 10

Aug. 24, 200612:03 a.m.

Bill Clinton seemed to be taking more pleasure in Monday’s 10th anniversary of welfare reform than he did his 60th birthday Saturday (though the latter will be celebrated by the Rolling Stones in late October). Writing in the New York Times this week, Clinton noted that three members of his administration resigned in protest of the reform and said, “The last 10 years have shown that we did in fact end welfare as we knew it, creating a new beginning for millions of Americans.” The key, he argued, was the bill’s bipartisanship. Now, he said, “We should address the inadequacies of the latest welfare reauthorization in a bipartisan manner, by giving states the flexibility to consider higher education as a category of ‘work,’ and by doing more to help people get the education they need and the jobs they deserve.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics, Welfare | Comments (62)