CHICAGO – In the first six months of his term, Illinois' new Governor J.B. Pritzker says he plans to implement to work with the Illinois legislature to enact a $15 statewide minimum wage. The city of Chicago's current minimum wage is $12 per hour, and the state's is $8.25.
With a like-minded Democrat super-majority in both Capitol chambers, Pritzker's effort would make Illinois have the highest minimum wage in the Midwest.
But even if it passes, there may be more expected in the days ahead. A columnist opined in the New York Times earlier this month that New York's $15 minimum wage isn't high enough. She's calling for $33 per hour.
Ginia Bellafante writes,
… A single parent with two school-age children, for example would need to make nearly $69,427 a year, according to City Harvest’s Self-Sufficiency calculator. That amounts to an hourly wage of just under $33.
So to live comfortably enough in all but the most expensive quarters in Brooklyn, a two-parent family with two children would need to make about $70,000 a year, which would mean that each parent would need to earn just over $16 an hour. That figure accounts for the $433 the family would receive in child-related tax credits. All across the city, the cost of basic needs is rising faster for low-income families that conventional inflation metrics actually indicate. Also dispiriting is the fact that nearly a quarter of households that fall below the self-sufficiency standard include an adult with a bachelor’s degree.
What this tells us is that the arrival of a $15 hourly minimum wage cannot be considered the end of something …
Evidently, in the future, the Illinois legislature and employers may be dealing with not only the $15 minimum wage hike, but more.
I went back to school to learn a new skill when I wanted to make more money. I didn’t wait for the government to demand that I get paid more.
Years ago I use to employ over 120 people in the unskilled to semi-skilled labor market. I exited those markets and now employ only skilled professionals (15 in total this year) all earning over 100K a year; the difference these are contractors and not direct employees. We relocated outside of Illinois to a business friendly environment.
On the lower end of the labor market I recommend to my small business clients to only consider concept with proven labor automation.
It has gotten to the point that Government intervention in the labor markets is a risk factor that simply cannot be assessed for small business owners. A smart business owner looks to minimize uncompensated risk factors.
Obamacare empowered the Government to and the republicans failure to repeal it has emboldened the liberals to use government to act as their bag man in wealth transfer.
Gov’t mandated wages are the sign of an oppressive gov’t. What is really sickening about this is the democrap controlled state legislature drives businesses and jobs from the state with their business and job unfriendly policies. Their hypocrisy is palpable…..
They want to implement these wage mandates to cover-up for their economic incompetence. High taxes and over-regulation kills !!
A state $15/hour wage mandate is effectively a state tax. Think its expensive to eat out now…. wait until the Marxists get done oppressing business owners, many will find eating out affordable.
Correction: meant to say, “many will find eating out unaffordable.”
The state debt is enormous, that too makes businesses pause when deciding to stay or come to Illinois.
Don’t bi*h about minimum wage rather increase your work productivity.