By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Chicago’s minimum wage will be going to $13 an hour in July, but there were hearings today in Springfield to also raise it for the suburbs and downstate.
The proposal is to raise the state’s current $8.25 minimum wage to $15 an hour in stages by the year 2025.
Here’s why St Rep Will Guzzardi says it’s needed.
“It is nothing but a poverty wage, a wage that keeps people that are paid that wage trapped in a perpetual cycle of poverty.”
But on the other side, Robb Carr of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association said this.
“Some would say you should just pass on your cost to the consumer. I think that ignores the economic reality of what’s going on particularly in the retail sector. We have a limited ability to pass on price increases.”
Nonetheless, the proposal appears to be set for passage to give the new Gov J B Pritzker an early win.
@ 2019 WLS-AM News
