Corbin City Commission raises city employee minimum wage to $9 per hour

The Corbin City Commission approved the first reading of a measure Friday morning that would raise the minimum wage for the city’s employees to $9 per hour.

At a special called meeting at city hall, the commission voted 3-1 in favor of the proposal.

Mayor Willard McBurney joined Commissioners Ed Tye and Freddy “Bruce” Hodge in favor of the motion.

Commissioner Suzie Razmus voted no. Commissioner Joe Shelton was absent.

City manager Marlon Sams said it would affect the wages of 13 city employees.

In response to a question from Razmus concerning the possibility of giving individual employees merit raises, City Clerk Roberta Webb responded that it was not legal to give individual city employees a raise.

“If you change the starting rate to $9 then you are going to leave those 13 behind,” Webb said.

In addition, Webb said if the commission voted to increase starting pay to $9 per hour, employees currently making a lower wage would not receive a corresponding increase.

“I just feel like it is ill-timed right now, because we have not really seen how much occupational tax is coming in and alcohol tax is going down,” Razmus said. “We have got a new commission coming in and they might feel differently about it.”