Topeka ? At $2.65 per hour, Kansas has the lowest state minimum wage in the nation. It’s even lower than the minimum wage in the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

So an increase in the rate would be welcomed by Calli Smith, a 21-year-old waitress at Jefferson’s Restaurant, a popular Lawrence eatery. Because without tips to supplement her regular pay, Smith said, she would have a hard time making ends meet.

“It helps make up for the minimum wage,” she said of the gratuities she’s received since going to work at the downtown restaurant more than a year ago.

A proposal before the Kansas Legislature would increase the state minimum wage to $7.50 within three years — but it ran into opposition Wednesday from business and restaurant groups.

After treating lawmakers to a dinner the previous night, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce & Industry urged them Wednesday to reject an increase.

Terry Leatherman, a lobbyist for the KCCI, said studies showed increases in the minimum wage resulted in the loss of entry-level jobs.

“It reduces employment and has a negative impact on the people it is intended to help,” said Leatherman, whose organization was host for dinner and entertainment Tuesday for the Legislature.

“Thank you all for coming last night,” he said to the committee.

Leatherman and Ron Hein, a lobbyist representing the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Assn., said his group would prefer Kansas go the route of seven other states and simply abolish a state minimum wage, and let market forces determine pay.

Calli Smith, 21, a Kansas University junior from Blair, Neb., is paid the Kansas minimum wage of .65 per hour, plus tips, for her work at Jefferson's Restaurant, 734 Mass. Legislation introduced in the Kansas House would raise the state's minimum wage, which affects about 24,000 workers, to .50 an hour by 2007.

Change ‘deserved’

But supporters of the measure said statements that an increase would hurt businesses and workers were myths that had long been discredited by economists.

“Kansas workers deserve better than the bottom of the national barrel,” said Carla James of the Kansas Action Network, a grassroots coalition that seeks workers’ rights.

The state minimum wage applies to some 24,000 employees not covered by the regulations of the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Testimony during the committee meeting indicated many of these employees worked for “mom-and-pop” restaurants such as Jefferson’s, 734 Mass.

Kansas established its minimum wage in 1977 at $1.60 an hour; it was increased to its current level in 1988.

Progressive increase

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Under legislation introduced by Rep. Ted Powers, R-Mulvane, the state minimum wage would increase to $5.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2005; to $6.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2006; and $7.50 per hour Jan. 1, 2007. He told the committee an increase would help pull Kansans out of poverty.

Wil Leiker, executive vice president of the Kansas AFL-CIO, expressed concern about the image of a state with such a low minimum wage.

“We say we’re a progressive state, but how do we leave people out there without a minimum amount of money to live on?” he asked.

And Shannon Jones, executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas, said an increase would move more disabled Kansans into the work force and away from tax-paid assistance.

“Kansans with disabilities want to work and will work, but they need a fair and decent wage to make that transition attractive,” Jones said.

Jones complained that many Kansans with disabilities were hired to work at far less than the minimum wage under contracts in which pay is based on the number of pieces completed. She said the state wouldn’t tolerate such wages for any other group.

But Committee Chairman Donald Dahl, R-Hillsboro, said he feared an increase in the state minimum wage would result in the loss of jobs for the disabled.

If that happened, Jones said, the disabled workers would find regular jobs that pay at least the federal minimum wage.

“You’re living in the utopia,” Dahl said.

Later Dahl said he didn’t know whether the committee would work on the bill or just let it die.

The bill to increase the state minimum wage is HB 2526.

Staff writer Mike Belt contributed to this report.