At City Hall, groups call for a higher minimum wage in Kansas City

Fast-food workers, nursing assistants and labor advocates gathered Friday at City Hall to call on the Kansas City Council to pass a higher minimum wage in the city by July 16.

They want the minimum wage raised to $10 per hour in the near future and to $15 per hour by 2020, although Mayor Sly James and other council members have questioned whether that’s the right goal. James has said he might be more inclined to approve a goal of $13 per hour.

“Living on poverty wages is like being stuck in quicksand,” Dana Wittman, a 39-year-old worker at Subway, told the gathering on the south side of City Hall.

She said that after more than 20 years working in fast food, she makes $8.75 per hour. She is homeless and unable to afford her own place, and she bounces between a relative’s home and her boyfriend’s place.

The City Council has said it hopes to decide on a higher minimum wage proposal by mid-July. A law passed in the most recent Missouri legislative session would prohibit cities from adopting their own minimum wage after Aug. 28, although the governor has yet to sign that bill.

St. Louis leaders are considering their own higher minimum wage, possibly $15 by Jan. 1, 2020. But in both Kansas City and St. Louis, the measures face heavy opposition from restaurant and hotel owners and other members of the business community.

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 1:59 PM with the headline "At City Hall, groups call for a higher minimum wage in Kansas City."