KENTUCKY — During this In Focus Kentucky segment, State Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas (D-Lexington) discusses his reaction to the recent inauguration of 46th President of the United States Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Also — shameful and ridiculous — those are the words used by Thomas to describe Kentucky's current minimum wage rate.

For the fourth year in a row, Thomas has filed legislation to address the state's minimum wage, which has not changed in 13 years.

"It's just shameful that people want to go to work, want to have the diginity of working, of being independent and doing for themselves. And yet, only being paid $7.25 an hour, and with that pay, Mario, they're still going to need federal assistance in terms of health care, federal assistance in terms of housing, federal assistance in terms of food. And that's ridiculous, Mario. I say this all the time. That's ridiculous to say we want people to go to work. We don't want them to just sit around and just receive a government check, we want them to go out to work, for these people do that. And yet, we do have to subsidize them because they're not earning a livable wage," explained Thomas.

Another provision of Thomas's bill would also let individual cities throughout the Commonwealth create their own minimum wage laws.

Thomas, along with the 137 other state lawmakers, return to Frankfort on Feb. 22 for the next phase of the General Assembly session.

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