Beginning July 24, 2007 federal minimum wage will increase to $5.85 per hour. Other increases will follow every year for the next three years. Here is the schedule as far as we know it:
- $5.85 per hour beginning July 24, 2007
- $6.55 per hour beginning July 24, 2008
- $7.25 per hour beginning July 24, 2009
Every library in Kansas will have to comply with these wage minimums. I hope library boards have already increased their budgets, if they needed, to cover the increases for 2007 and 2008.
If your librarian is working ten hours a week and is earning $5.15 per hour, now your library budget will need an additional $189 for the rest of 2007 plus any benefits that are based on a percentage of the regular pay.
In 2008 your library will need an additional $364. It is already too late to get additional money from your regular taxing source for 2007. It may be too late to increase the 2008 budget, too. Libraries that are open more or have more staff will have to find even more money in their budgets. What will library boards that are already paying their library director a little more than minimum wage do?
What can library boards do if they have to raise salaries to meet the new federal minimum wage regulations?
- For 2007 they can change individual line items in the budget as long as the total doesn't exceed the original budget.
- They can rearrange System Grant funds to meet the challenge, unless they have already allocated all of their System Grant for salaries.
- They can ask their city to give them more money from the general fund to meet the minimum wage increase.
- For the 2009 budget, boards absolutely need to increase funding to accommodate the new minimum wage.
If you are paying someone to work 10 hours per week and he or she is earning $5.15 per hour now, you will have to increase your budget $1,092 by 2009 if you plan to keep the same position at minimum wage for the next three years.
Since the last federal increase in September 1997, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has deteriorated by 20 percent (after accounting for inflation) and is actually at its lowest value since 1955.
The minimum wage is a measure of how we value work in this country. It should reflect a deal society makes with every worker in America that, if you work hard and play by the rules, then you are entitled to a decent day's wages for a decent day's work. I think it is time for those who fund and manage libraries to step up to the plate and make sure that everyone on the library staff is paid fairly.
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