Beshear Waves Magic Wand!

Gov. Steve Beshear has raised the minimum wage of state employees, including those who work for state contractors, by executive order.

The new wage will be $10.10 per hour.  "Tipped" employees will also get a raise, which leads to the question of why the Commonwealth has "tipped" employees on its payroll to begin with.

All of this will cost Kentucky $1.58 million. Because, don't you know, Kentucky is just awash in excess money, so Beshear decided to spread the wealth around.

Beshear was frustrated that he could not get the Kentucky legislature to raise the minimum wage, so he did it by executive order.  (Remind you of anyone?)  That means the next governor can undo the executive order if he so chooses.

I've written on my opposition to raising the minimum wage previously in the Courier-Journal.