Nation's Best Governor Does it Again

Yeah, he's an ass on coal and a sucker for godbotherers, but between Obamacare and this, Steve Beshear is earning a statue in the Capitol Rotunda.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Steve Beshear is raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for hundreds of the lowest-paid workers in Kentucky's executive branch.

Beshear, who will leave office in December, ceremonially signed an executive order Monday afternoon at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington to raise the pay of nearly 800 state workers starting July 1. The current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

Tipped employees — such as those who work in state park restaurants — will see their wages more than doubled to $4.90 per hour.

The wage increases will cost about $1.6 million, and less than $800,000 of that cost will come from the General Fund, Beshear said. He did not immediately identify the source of the other money.

Hundreds of state government workers care for veterans in nursing homes, maintain parks and help adults with mental disabilities for about $15,000 a year, Beshear said.

"That's a disgrace," Beshear said. "Raising their pay is a moral imperative."

The Democratic governor also challenged employers in the private and public sectors to follow the lead of the state's largest employer, and strongly argued that common arguments against raising the wage don't hold up to scrutiny.

"I call on every business leader and local government to take a hard look at the facts," Beshear said. "Paying our people a living wage isn't a fiscal backbreaker, and the impacts will be extraordinarily beneficial."

He did this because the repugs in the state senate keep rejecting a bill to raise the state minimum wage.  Which brings up the question of how many seconds after Matt Bevin is inaugurated as governor in December will he rescind this order.

Somebody ask Matt Bevin what he thinks about state employees earning a living wage.