Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas Senate Bill SB471

Introduced
2/3/26  

Caption

Increasing the Kansas minimum wage to $16 an hour and making such minimum wage applicable to employers and employees covered under the provisions of the federal fair labor standards act.

Summary

SB 471 would raise Kansas’s state minimum wage to $16 per hour by amending the state’s minimum wage and maximum hours law. The bill changes K.S.A. 44-1203 to replace the current $7.25 hourly minimum with $16, while also revising related definitions in K.S.A. 44-1202. It retains the existing tip-credit framework, under which employers of tipped workers may count tips and gratuities toward the minimum wage, and it preserves the separate lower direct cash wage for tipped employees, with a reconciliation requirement if tips do not bring total pay up to the applicable minimum. The bill also changes the scope of the state law by making the Kansas minimum wage apply to employers and employees covered under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Under current law, those employers and employees are generally excluded from the state minimum wage provisions; SB 471 would remove that exclusion and bring them within the state wage floor. The bill repeals the existing sections of the statute and would take effect upon publication in the statute book.

Impact

SB 471 would substantially increase the wage floor under Kansas law and expand the number of workers and employers subject to state minimum wage requirements. It would amend K.S.A. 44-1202 and 44-1203, repeal the existing versions of those sections, and require covered employers to pay at least $16 per hour, subject to the bill’s tipped-employee provisions. The bill would also align state coverage more broadly with federal wage-law coverage by eliminating the current exclusion for employers and employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be a pro-worker wage policy proposal with no recorded committee debate or vote history in the provided materials. The caption and drafting indicate an intent to raise pay for low-wage workers and extend coverage, suggesting support from advocates of higher wages and labor protections. Because no transcripts or votes are included, there is no documented opposition or formal sentiment in the record provided.

Contention

The main points of contention likely concern the size of the wage increase, the effect on employers’ labor costs, and the decision to extend state minimum wage coverage to workers already covered by federal law. Employers, especially small businesses and industries with many low-wage or tipped workers, would likely be most affected by the higher wage floor and broader coverage. Another likely issue is the treatment of tipped employees, since the bill preserves a tip-credit structure but still raises the overall minimum wage standard.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS HB2002

Expanding medical assistance eligibility and enacting the cutting healthcare costs for all Kansans act.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB5

Authorizing counties to impose an earnings tax.

KS HB2004

Authorizing counties to propose an earnings tax for ballot question.

KS SCR1602

Approving the creation of a port authority in Wyandotte County Kansas.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

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