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Fulfilling the governor's goal of providing annual increases, the
legislation will increase the minimum wage to $7.75 in July 2008,
$8.00 in July 2009 and $8.25 in 2010. The legislation includes a
youth wage differential of 50 cents for workers under 18. It also
adds a new training wage differential that allows all employees,
regardless of age, to be paid up to 50 cents less for their first 90
calendar days of employment with that employer. If passed, the
legislation goes into effect July 1, 2007.
The governor first proposed the minimum wage increase earlier
this year.
Senate Bill 1268 was co-sponsored by Reps. Marlow Colvin,
D-Chicago; Larry McKeon, D-Chicago; Louis Lang, D-Skokie; Cynthia
Soto, D-Chicago; and Deborah Graham, D-Chicago.
"Someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at the minimum
wage earns just over $13,000," Blagojevich said. "You can't raise a
family on $13,000 a year. Nearly 650,000 men and women in Illinois
work for the minimum wage, and they have nearly 300,000 children. So
increasing the minimum wage means helping nearly 1 million people
keep up with the cost of living, and it means making it a little
easier for them to get by. I applaud the House Labor Committee for
doing the right thing today."
The passage in committee comes just after the
Economic Policy Institute released a new study demonstrating the
importance of minimum wage increases for working individuals.
According to the study by Paul Wolfson of Dartmouth College, in
states that have increased the minimum wage, wages have gone up
without adverse affects on employment. The study debunks the
argument commonly used by opponents of minimum wage increases, which
asserts that wage increases for lower-paying jobs reduces the number
of available jobs. In fact, according to the Economic Policy
Institute data, increases in the minimum wage led to higher wages
without reducing either employment or labor supply.
"This bill will ensure that working families in Illinois are able
to keep up with cost of living increases, and I am thankful my
colleagues in the Labor Committee took this swift action," said
Colvin, sponsor of the legislation.
"For millions for families throughout the state, making ends meet
is becoming more and more difficult as costs for things like
groceries increase," said McKeon, chairman of the House Labor
Committee and a chief co-sponsor of the legislation.
"With this bill, people earning the minimum wage will see their pay
increase not once, but annually."
[to top of second column]
 |
 Last month, when they first announced the proposed minimum wage
bill, Blagojevich and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley were joined by
members of the Illinois General Assembly, labor leaders and other
leaders in the fight for working families. The governor and mayor
have vowed to push for the bill's passage during the fall veto
session so those Illinois citizens who need support the most will
benefit and be able to better support themselves and their families.
"I would urge my colleagues in the House to support this
important bill that will help millions of Illinois parents provide
for their children," said Lang, a chief co-sponsor of the
legislation. "Increasing the minimum wage over time just makes
sense."
"So many hardworking people in Illinois are living paycheck to
paycheck, struggling to make ends meet with the current minimum
wage," said Soto, a chief co-sponsor of the legislation. "The House
Labor Committee recognizes the importance of ensuring that parents
need not choose between providing food or paying bills."
"I would urge the House of Representatives to follow the example
set by the Labor Committee and pass this important bill," said
Graham, a chief co-sponsor of the legislation. "This bill will make
life that much easier for working people by helping them keep up
with cost of living increases."
Blagojevich fought for and signed legislation raising the minimum
wage in 2003 from the federal level of $5.15 an hour to $6.50 an
hour (the federal minimum wage remains at $5.15). While that
difference meant an additional $1.35 an hour, or an extra $2,808 a
year for a full-time worker, earning the minimum wage still means
earning only a total of $13,520 a year. That means the current
minimum wage annual salary represents only 67.6 percent of the 2006
federal poverty level for a family of four ($20,000) and is just
above the threshold for a single parent with one child ($13,200).
The increase to $7.50 an hour will result in a pre-tax gross income
of $15,600, an additional $2,080.
Despite predictions from opponents of the
minimum wage that its increase would harm the economy, since the
higher wage took effect, Illinois has added more than 151,000 new
jobs since January 2004, which is more than any state in the
Midwest, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Illinois has led the nation in job growth twice this year, April and
July, which has never happened before in recorded history, and has
been named by Site Selection magazine as the third-best state in the
nation for attracting new and expanded corporate facilities. Inc.
magazine recently named Blagojevich as the second-best governor in
the nation for fiscal policy (Blagojevich was also named the top
governor for health care policy). In addition, the unemployment rate
has fallen from 6.7 percent in January 2003, when the fight for the
higher minimum wage began, to 4.4 percent today.
[News release from the governor's
office] |
