Minimum-wage hike for working families

Voters in Tuesday’s special election for Kentucky House District 62 should not be fooled by an ad from the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a dark-money outfit that was started to support Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 2014 campaign.

Without mentioning either candidate’s party, the ad proclaims that the “Phillip Pratt plan” includes “higher wages for working people.” Yet, Republican Pratt strongly opposes a state minimum-wage increase and if elected would join Republicans who are blocking minimum-wage increases in Kentucky’s legislature and Congress.

Former Scott County magistrate Chuck Tackett, a Democrat, says he would support a “slow, incremental” rise in the state minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would directly affect an estimated 304,000 Kentuckians and give another 158,000 Kentuckians an indirect boost. You could call that “higher wages for working people.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Minimum-wage hike for working families."