§ 19-2. Minimum wage.

(a)

Short title. This section shall be known and may be cited as the Unified Government Minimum Wage Ordinance.

(b)

Purpose. For the purpose of this section and the subsections contained herein the unified government declares that the public welfare, health, safety and prosperity of the city, require wages and benefits sufficient to ensure a decent and healthy life for workers and their families.

(c)

Definitions. The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this section, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this subsection, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Casual basis means irregular or intermittent.

City means the City of Kansas City, Kansas, and the service territory of the unified government comprised of that territory within the borders of the City of Kansas City, Kansas.

Domestic service means services of a household nature performed on a casual basis by an employee in or about a private home of the person by whom he is employed.

Employ means to suffer or permit to work.

Employee means any individual employed on a full-time or part-time basis by an employer within the borders of the city, but shall not include:

(1)

Any individual employed in agriculture;

(2)

Any individual employed in domestic service in or about a private home on a casual basis;

(3)

Any individual employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity or in the capacity of an outside commission paid salesman;

(4)

Any individual employed by the United States;

(5)

Any individual who renders service gratuitously for a nonprofit organization;

(6)

Any individual employed by a unified school district in an executive, administrative or professional capacity, if the individual is engaged in such capacity 50 percent or more of the hours during which the individual is so employed; or

(7)

Any employee who is subject to the minimum wage provisions of section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 USC 206) and any other acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto.

Employer means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust or any person or group of persons, who is required to pay the unified government an occupation tax, acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but shall not include any employer who is subject to the minimum wage provisions of section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 USC 206) and any other acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto.

Gratuity means voluntary monetary contribution received by an employee from a guest, patron or customer for services rendered.

License administrator means the supervisor of the business licensing division or his designee.

Occasional or part-time basis means any employee working less than 40 hours per week and, for the purposes of this definition, students 18 years of age and under working between academic terms shall be considered part-time employees regardless of the number of hours worked.

Occupation means employment in any service, trade, business, industry or other gainful employment.

Tipped employee means an employee engaged in an occupation in which tips and gratuities have customarily constituted part of the wages of the employee, and the employee concerned customarily and regularly receives more than $30.00 per month in tips and gratuities.

Wage means compensation due to an employee by reason of the employee's employment, payable in legal tender of the United States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value, subject to such allowances as may be permitted by subsection (e) of this section and amendments thereto.

(d)

Minimum wage; computation; applicability of subsection.

(1)

Except as otherwise provided by law, every employer shall pay to each employee wages at a rate of not less than $6.55 per hour. Every employer of a tipped employee shall pay to each tipped employee wages at a rate of not less than $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the city's minimum hourly wage, and the employee concerned actually received and retained such tips and gratuities. If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the city's minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Any employer desiring approval of an allowance for gratuities shall provide substantial evidence of the amounts of such gratuities on account of which the employer has taken an allowance pursuant to this subsection (d) of this section.

(2)

A minimum wage of not less than $4.25 shall be paid to employees under the age of 20 for their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment with any employer as long as their work does not displace other workers. After 90 consecutive days of employment, or when the worker reaches age 20 (whichever comes first), the worker must receive at least the minimum wage provided in section (d)(1) of this section.

(3)

The provisions of this section shall not apply to any employers and employees who are covered under the provisions of section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 as amended (29 USC 206), and as amended by the fair labor standards amendments of 1974 and any other acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto.

(4)

The minimum wage shall be adjusted upward by an amount to correspond to any increase in the federal minimum wage as set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 as amended (29 USC 206), and as amended by the fair labor standards amendments of 1974 and any other acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto.

(e)

Recordkeeping requirements; records open to inspection. Every employer subject to any provision of this section, or of any rule and regulation adopted pursuant thereto, shall make and keep, for a period of not less than three years, in or about the premises wherein any employee is employed, a record of the name and occupation of each employee, the rate of pay and the amount paid each pay period to each such employee, the hours worked each day and each work week by each such employee and such other information as the license administrator may prescribe by rules and regulations as being necessary or appropriate for the enforcement of the provisions of this section, inclusive, or of the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto. In lieu of the records required under this section, any employer who is covered under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (29 USC 201 et seq.) and as further amended by the fair labor standards amendments of 1974 and any other acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, may keep and maintain the records required under said Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended. Such records shall be open for inspection or transcription by the licensing administrator or his designee at any reasonable time.

(f)

Violations; penalties.

(1)

Any employer who is convicted of violating any provisions of this section, inclusive, or falsifying any record pertaining thereto shall be guilty of an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $250.00, but no more than $500.00 per offense. Each pay period in which a violation continues shall be considered a separate offense subject to the penalty discussed herein.

(2)

Any employer who discharges or in any other manner discriminates against any employee because such employee has made any complaint to his employer or the city, or to the authorized representative of the city, that he has not been paid wages in accordance with this section, inclusive, or rules or regulations issued thereunder, or because such employee has caused to be instituted, or is about to cause to be instituted, any proceeding under or related to this section, inclusive, or because such employee has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, shall be deemed in violation of this section, inclusive. Any person convicted of a violation of this section and amendments thereto shall be guilty of an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $250.00, but no more than $500.00 per offense. Each pay period in which a violation continues shall be considered a separate offense subject to the penalty discussed herein.

(g)

Liability of employer for payment of wages and overtime compensation; civil enforcement; attorney fees and costs. Any employer who pays an employee less than the wages to which such employee is entitled, under this section, inclusive, shall be liable to such employee affected for the full amount of such wages, less any amount actually paid to such employee by the employer, and for costs and such reasonable attorney fees as may be allowed by the court in an action for the recovery of such wages and overtime compensation. Any agreement between such employee and the employer to work for less than the applicable wage rate shall be no defense to such action. Such action may be maintained in any court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of such employee.

(h)

Right of employees to bargain collectively not affected. Nothing in this section, inclusive, shall be deemed to interfere with, impede or in any way diminish the right of employees to bargain collectively with their employers, through representatives of their own choosing, in order to establish wages or other conditions of work in excess of the applicable minimum requirements of this section, inclusive.

(i)

Other laws more favorable to employees not affected until specifically superseded. Any standards relating to minimum wages or other working conditions in effect under any other law of the state on the effective date of the ordinance from which this section is derived which are more favorable to the employees than those applicable hereunder shall not be deemed to be amended, rescinded or otherwise affected by this section but shall continue in full force an effect until they are specifically superseded by standards more favorable to such employees by operation of or in accordance with this section or rules and regulations adopted hereunder.

(Ord. No. O-43-08, §§ 1—9, 7-24-2008)