Minimum wage roundup
Friday, Feb 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* We’re eventually gonna find out once and for all who’s right about this and who’s wrong…
During more than two hours of debate Thursday, Republicans, who have long criticized high costs on business in the form of workers’ compensation insurance and property taxes, complained the wage ramp would be another impediment to commerce. They argue it would cost jobs in a state where statistics show more than 60 percent of residents live within 40 miles of a state border.
“People vote with the dollars, and they vote with the feet,” said Rep. Randy Frese, a Republican from Paloma is west-central Illinois. “Our region may see economic growth, but the growth will be on the other side of the border, which doesn’t benefit Illinois.”
Guzzardi has repeatedly cited research showing no damaging economic effects where the minimum wage has increased. He said the only way to predict what will happen with an 82 percent wage hike in six years is to look at historical data.
“Raising the minimum wage has no net effect on employment, it doesn’t drive jobs out of the state,” Guzzardi said. “All it does is put money in people’s pockets who need it.”
* There are good arguments and bad arguments against the minimum wage bill. This one is not so good…
[Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville] even commented on the tax credits that are included in the bill for small businesses to help them adjust to the higher wage.
“Tax breaks only help if there is income — not when there is zero profit made,” Meier said.
The tax credits are based on the withholding amount. Employers keep 25 percent of the tax paid on the additional income. That works out to be a small amount of money and the percentage drops every year, but it’s not dependent upon profits.
* Also…
“If we were to get a 5 percent raise annually, it would take 12 years to get to $15 an hour, and a 3 percent raise would take 20 years. It shows the five-year spread is not long enough.”
Another way of looking at this is it’s been nine years since the minimum wage was last increased in Illinois. The final step to $15 an hour happens in January of 2025. So, that’s 15 years to raise wages by $6.75 an hour, or about 45 cents per year.
* Here’s a strange argument made yesterday by Rep. CD Davidsmeyer…
* This is a decent point…
Karen Conn owns several businesses in central Illinois and told a House committee Wednesday the increase will be just one added cost on top of others that she’s worried about not being able to afford.
“But it will also be with my product vendors, my insurance companies, my taxes, my utilities, and my insurance rates will continue in the coming years,” Conn said.
The increased income becomes part of the entire business and consumer cost stream.
But she also said during a hearing this week that people could rent a nice two-bedroom apartment in downtown Springfield for $500 a month. Legislators who live downtown during session had a nice chuckle at that one.
* IRMA…
“On behalf of the retail community, we are disappointed that a readily achievable compromise was not adopted on such an important matter. We thank the many employers who bravely came forward to share their concerns about the specific impacts of this legislation as they asked lawmakers to appreciate the economic diversity of our state,” said Rob Karr, president & CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association. “Still, we are hopeful that the failure to embrace genuine and achievable compromise on this legislation is not an indication of further things to come.”
Rob is always an optimist. I wonder how he’s gonna feel in four years.
- Anon - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:16 am:
Not so sure Charlie Meier is wrong when it comes to not-for-profits. YMCA’s dont’ have any income tax liability to “credit” against. useless to them. So credit not helpful to NFP’s but also useless to community colleges and universities.
- Anon - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:20 am:
If the point that raising the minimum wage doesn’t hurt jobs but it just puts money in people’s pocket is true, then they should have made the minimum wage $50/hour, not $15.
That’s obviously an extreme example. But my point is it does hurt jobs, at a certain point. It’s probably also true that that point is lower in Southern, IL than the Chicago area. We’ll find out if $15/hour is that point or not. I don’t think anyone on either side the debate knows if it is not.
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:21 am:
–“But it will also be with my product vendors, my insurance companies, my taxes, my utilities, and my insurance rates will continue in the coming years,” Conn said.–
Did all those costs remain the same for the last nine years?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:25 am:
=== YMCA’s dont’ have any income tax liability to “credit” against===
Are you seriously that daft? YMCAs withhold income taxes from their employees, right? The credit is based on part of that withheld income tax.
- Iggy - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:25 am:
=We’re eventually gonna find out =
And the few of us who remain in this state will all be too stoned on legal weed to care about it, am I right?
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:27 am:
GOP incumbents and challengers for the GA can now campaign in their districts for repealing the bump. Sell it to the folks back home and reap your rewards for your monolithic party position.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:30 am:
Anon,
The tax credit was specifically structured so non-profits could utilize it. It’s payroll based, not income based.
- Pick a Name - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:30 am:
Has there ever been a 82% increase in 6 years in the minimum wage?
- Reserved - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:36 am:
My privilege may be showing here, but I didn’t think that there were that many people making less than $15 an hour, has anyone posted anything about how many employees will be affected and how many employers?
- Not It - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:44 am:
An item I hadn’t thought of about this until recently is the impact this has on the people above minimum wage. They will all need pay increases as well. You can’t have an assistant manager making the same as the people below them. (Unless they are AFSCME employees, then it’s okay.)
- SAP - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:46 am:
==Has there ever been a 82% increase in 6 years in the minimum wage?== No, but there was a 57% increase over 3 years recently.
- J IL - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:47 am:
This could lead to some big time salary compression as NotIt alludes to.
- Demoralized - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:47 am:
==Has there ever been a 82% increase in 6 years in the minimum wage?==
You going to take into account the 9 years it’s been frozen? Because you should.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:48 am:
Randy Frese must be ignoring his missouri counterparts actions. Missouri minimum wage is raised to twelve dollars by 2023. The difference is negligible. Does he think businesses are going to move to Missouri farm field and lose traffic over 15 to 20 cents?
- the Patriot - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:55 am:
If democrats believed this was a good idea, Madigan would not have waited until he is 76 to pass it, and would not delay 6 years to enact it.
Madigan and JB will be long gone before this happens. I never understood a 6 year plan to double minimum wage. If you believe in it, vote this year to raise it a dollar, next year do it again. Democrats know the problems will start before we get to $15 so they drain the publicity out of this, knowing it will not end well or repealed before 2025.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:56 am:
==Has there ever been a 82% increase in 6 years in the minimum wage?==
My calculations are a 27.5% increase in 10 and a half years. 7/24/2009 minimum wage was $7.25 and 1/1/2020 minimum wage will be $9.25.
$7.25 times .275 = 1.99375 added to $7.25 give you $9.243
- Demoralized - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:57 am:
== it would take 12 years to get to $15 an hour, and a 3 percent raise would take 20 years==
So is the suggestion a 12 to 20 year phase in? Because that’s laughable if that’s what they mean by “failure to compromise.” You cannot compromise on the minimum wage if the argument being made is that we shouldn’t raise the wage, or in this case raise it over 20 years. There’s nothing to compromise on.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 11:58 am:
To the post,
The biggest takeaway for me is the “69 Green”.
Going back to the time of Franks, Drury, and Dunkin, it meant 71 was the “number”. The former governor used leverage to allow votes and bills, but just not that “71”, that number to override.
Why is it the biggest takeaway?
The HGOP has a “compromise” position of… no. That’s it. Not a real alternate position, just a “no”. When the HGOP had the former governor, anything was ok, except “71”
Fast forward, we now have a bill, you have it pass with less than 71, and the “new day, new administration” where 60 and 30 and even a 71 and 36 is in play… and signature is also measured quite differently.
To the HGOP, and the ILGOP, this is governing, because when your position is just “no”, and they have the votes, what do you think will happen… when Dunkin, Drury, Franks, and a past Governor are now all long gone.
The rest? The rest is policy, fulfilling a campaign promise and working the chambers for “39” and “69”… and signature ready and waiting.
The backdrop of “$15 an hour” is a precursor and a lesson to the GOP GA;
You want relevancy, do better to either peel the votes, or work your own bill(s) to get a seat. It’s called governing.
This shouldn’t be “the end” of cooperation. No, it’s a reminder. Be relevant. Be engaged. Be less monolithic.
OW
- Pick a Name - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:01 pm:
Demo, I’ll take your answer as a No.
Anybody that starts at minimum wage and 9 years later is still at minimum wage is doing a miserable job. So saying minimum wage has been frozen for 9 years is being disingenuous.
When I was a teenager, the minimum wage wasn’t even $2/hour. As a part-timer, I received increases because I showed up on time and did a good job.
Want more? Do better, do more, be reliable.
- Illinois Resident - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:02 pm:
If anything, the step up in the minimum wage was not aggressive enough. Should have been an immediate increase. It’s comical that some business owners think it is OK to pay people starvation wages where the government needs to supplement them with food stamps, housing assistance, etc. so they can survive.
- Demoralized - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:04 pm:
==So saying minimum wage has been frozen for 9 years is being disingenuous.==
Has it or has it not been the same amount for nine years? Yes. So, it’s a fact. I’m sorry if that fact is inconvenient to your argument.
- RNUG - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:05 pm:
== My privilege may be showing here, but I didn’t think that there were that many people making less than $15 an hour, ==
Downstate there are a lot of people making more than minimum but less than $15.
- RNUG - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:08 pm:
== They will all need pay increases as well. ==
Yes, that will happen. I know one business (a corporate owned franchise) that bumped all their people up at the last State minimum wage increase.
- Blue Dog Dem - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:09 pm:
The progressive caucus owns this. We will find out in a couple of years. You can bet the GOP and like minded groups will let all know when a shop closes up or moves. Just wait til we go fossil fuelless in 2030.
- SaulGoodman - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:14 pm:
**but I didn’t think that there were that many people making less than $15 an hour, has anyone posted anything about how many employees will be affected and how many employers?**
Approximately 1.4 million people make less than $15/hour in Illinois.
- Harvest76 - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:15 pm:
I remember the last time the minimum wage was increased, the owner of Knights Action Park here in Spfld said it would put him out of business. Since then, the park has not only survived, but expanded. I’m not saying there arent costs associated with the increase, but it gets harder to take the detractors seriously when they make the same arguments each time and life still goes on.
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:15 pm:
==Has there ever been a 82% increase in 6 years in the minimum wage?==
How’s about an 85% bump in two years, under Gov. Edgar?
Minimum Wage
1990: $2.30
1992: $4.25
+85%
Further bumps continued under Edgar/Pate/Madigan until the minimum wage reached $5.15 in 1998 — an increase of 124% in eight years.
How did all those ruinous Republican bumps effect jobs?
Illinois Employed:
1990: 5.6 million
1999: 6.5 million
+ 900,000
https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/STTMINWGIL
- Red Ranger - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:16 pm:
Minimum wage, selling the tollway, pension skim, taxing health care claims, “temporary” income tax hike, I know these are only ideas being floated, but there is a potential that goodwill and the spirit of compromise may not make it to Flag Day
- Occam - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:18 pm:
Has anyone done the actual math on the tax credit?
The employer incurs an additional $1.00, plus $0.0765 for Employer FICA = $1.0765. The employee has additional State income tax withheld on the incremental $1.00 at 4.99% or ($0.0499) of which the employer gets a 25% tax credit (or $0.012).
So the incremental employer cost is $1.0765 less a $0.012 credit for a net of $1.0645 for every $1 increase in the wage rate.
- RNUG - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:19 pm:
The Conn’s will survive. The family has been in the restaurant business for multiple generations. They have been adept at handling changing tastes and business conditions. They will manage the gradual annual increases; it just may cost us a bit more for our liquid refreshments or dinner.
If you haven’t, try out Obed & Isaac’s. Have a Ditsy Blonde or one of their other local brews. And their “upscale pub food” (as one review site labels it) is very good. Mrs RNUG & I had Valentine’s dinner at their Peoria restaurant last night.
- zatoichi - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:19 pm:
All the not-for-profit groups I am aware of are exempt from state and federal taxes. Please explain how a tax credit based on payroll helps them. NFPs that contract with DHS have to work within a Medicaid rate structure that has not been increased since 2008. NFPs cannot simply raise their prices as they can. Unless that Medicaid rate has huge increases (like doubling) this will become an unfunded mandate that NFPs simply will not have the money to pay. If I am a direct service provider (DSP) in NFP making $11.25 hr. ($3 over minimum) will I be making $18 when the $15 rate kicks in or will I be at $15 which puts me back at minimum again? Wage compression is a huge factor that I hear nothing about.
- wondering wendy - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:31 pm:
Many, many people, particularly in southern Illinois make less than $15 an hour. Day care workers, DSPs in group homes, front line staff in businesses, etc. Also, a large group of the trades start out at less than $15 an hour…..
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:34 pm:
Instead of asking “whether” some businesses might survive, a better question is “how many closings are acceptable to get more people up to a living wage and less reliant on public assistance?” I don’t mind a few places closing if the legislation is successful in helping more people live better lives.
- Big Jer - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:34 pm:
My two cents:
I think a lot of people are doing this over the minimum wage law:
https://reactiongifs.me/hyperventilating/
From what I read, by January 2023 when a new governor can be elected the minimum wage will rise to $13/hr. BUT at that time whoever is in the majority in Illinois politics can change it quickly as Pritzker did.
Also in 2022, the year before a new governor and/or legislature would be elected, the minimum wage will be $12 in Illinois.
I have always thought $12/hr for a minimum wage was more reasonable. For people that do not want a higher minimum wage at all I urge you to work on the other side of the spectrum and lower the cost of living.
Imagine someone in high school or college making the current minimum wage and wants to take a date to see a Cubs game. If they are working part time their minimum wage paycheck is gone just for one baseball game!
When I was in high school in the 70’s you could buy a beater car for a couple thousand bucks. Now? Go to a used car lot but be sure to take smelling salts with you.
- efudd - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:35 pm:
In the eighties, when I was a kid, I worked at a local business. I made minimum wage, 3.35 I think it was. That was okay since I was a teenager living at home. Other employees, though, were adults, some with kids.
The owner, a died in the wool Republican, was constantly complaining about how he couldn’t keep employees. In my youthful innocence I had the temerity to suggest he pay his employees more.
He responded how he simply couldn’t afford it. I replied then maybe he should stop complaining about an inability retaining staff. He stomped away muttering how I didn’t understand business.
I quit that job shortly after, finding a much better paying one, with benefits. Never spoke to the owner again.
Couple of years after that, his business went under. Bested by his only competition in town, which is still open today.
My first lesson in how a Republican is never wrong.
- Honeybear - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:35 pm:
Reserved- I look at paystubs all day long as a DHS caseworker. The best we get here in the Metro East is about 11$hr. That’s a really good job here. The study that I saw indicated that over a million people would be affected. I believe it. And the great thing is that every dollar of those increases is going to get plowed right back into local economies. Every dollar. And also, I wanted to thank you for acknowledging a possible “privilege” blind spot. Seriously thank you. It’s not that we shouldn’t be privileged. It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with privilege. A lot of privilege is by one’s birth. It’s learning one’s privilege and seeking to readjust in the face of oppressive systems that “privilege” us. I chose to work in office I did because of it. I chose to do the work I do because of an acknowledgment of my privilege. Not all of us can do what I did. I get it. BUT, we can continually do what you did. Ask “Am I not seeing my privilege?” I applaud you. Thank you.
- Adam - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:41 pm:
Would RNUG or someone who truly knows please explain to me now non for profits will make it with this increase when the state is already behind on paying most of them and most of them are very cash strapped as it is?
- Harvest76 - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:41 pm:
Well put, Honeybear.
- efudd - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:43 pm:
“Just wait till we go fossil fuelless in 2030.”
Yeah, all that clean air, what a drag. Just think how peeved our kids will be.
- Perrid - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:44 pm:
Rich, is the credit a percentage of the withholding, or a percentage of the wage difference (before any withholding)? Rep Guzzardi and one of the GOP reps went back and forth in the hearing on this and it confused me.
- City Zen - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:46 pm:
Occam - Any employee expense based on salary (FUTA, SUTA, worker’s comp) is in play.
- Blue Dog Dem - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:46 pm:
The one positive out of this is that once the $15/hr sets in, all public assistance will end. I think.
- Iron Lady - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:58 pm:
Karen and Court Conn, owners of Obed and Isaac’s and Wm Van, are not too keen on parting with a dime but will have their hands out for TIF money and the like. In 2008, city crews trimmed trees, closed roads¾ and moved power lines and streetlights so the Conn’s could move the Maisenbacher house and make it Wm Van.The city used $55,000 in federal grant funds and another $60K in TIF money to demolish the house that sat on the Wm Van lot and build the new foundation.
- Perrid - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 12:59 pm:
This is from DoR’s note on the bill:
“The tax credit for eligible employers is a declining percentage of the wage increment defined as the differential between the employee’s hourly wage from the final quarter of the previous calendar year and the State’s minimum wage of the present year)”
It’s a percentage of the wage increment, not of the withholding. Unless I am totally misunderstanding something?
- City Zen - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:05 pm:
==The one positive out of this is that once the $15/hr sets in, all public assistance will end. I think.==
This point alone would convert a lot of people on the fence regarding a min wage hike. Strange that the Fight for $15 folks never discuss this major selling point. It’s as if…
- Pick a Name - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:25 pm:
Iron Lady, and you could have received the same deal moving the house that the Conns got.
You had the same opportunity as they did.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:25 pm:
==Strange that the Fight for $15 folks never discuss this major selling point. It’s as if…==
Strange that you never heard of Bernie Sanders, Fight for $15’s most famous member, or his Stop Bezos Act where public assistance for employees was the main point.
- RNUG - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:26 pm:
==The one positive out of this is that once the $15/hr sets in, all public assistance will end. I think.==
Maybe, maybe not. Will depend on family size and what the Federal poverty level is in 6 or 7 years.
- RNUG - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:30 pm:
This is all moot if the national $15 movement manages to get it passed.
- Unpopular - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:33 pm:
Who is ready to lead the “tussle for $20?” How about the “throttling for $30?” Even better, the “fight for $40.” The “fisticuffs for $50.”
- wordslinger - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:37 pm:
–Iron Lady, and you could have received the same deal moving the house that the Conns got.
You had the same opportunity as they did.–
The mental contortions it takes to miss the point so badly must be painful.
- Honeybear - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 1:50 pm:
City Zen, every single Human Services Caseworker works daily to help our customers overcome barriers to self sufficiency. It’s our goal. Help people towards self sufficiency and off of public assistance. 15 goes a long way towards that. Contrary to popular believe, the poor do not want to be poor. I’d say honestly from my daily work with my good fellow community members that only about 5% are really like that. Honestly, 5%. The rest can’t wait to do better. The other 95% really want to make it for themselves and their families. Go visit an FCRC and you’ll see. These are members of our communities that I believe in. I’m all about them doing better. But yes, it’s going to be scary at first. The first month they don’t get that little bit of food stamp help. But if they were already working they aren’t going to be getting a lot anyway. It depends on the size of their family. But honestly they were most likely not getting a lot if they were working.
Now the area I am worried a lot about is housing.
That’s going to get really unstable. I hope they that they increase the threshold for assistance. There are too many homeless kids going to school. That is so so bad.
Let’s be concerned with how our fellow Illinoisans are doing.
It’s bad folks
It’s really bad
Nobody talks about it
Nobody looks at it.
(except Rich, God bless him)
But let’s really look poverty and need in the face
and do something about it.
- Big Jer - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:08 pm:
Honeybear on a roll. 2 for 2 in this post.
- Skeptic - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:16 pm:
“60 percent of residents live within 40 miles of a state border.” Considering 50 percent of residents live within 40 miles of Chicago, what’s his argument? People are going to move from Tinley Park to Hammond?
- Anon - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:17 pm:
How do you apply a credit against tax liability that doesn’t exist for a not-profit? Typically, you get a “credit” that you apply against your own tax bill - in which case, NFP’s don’t get anything.
Unless what you are really saying is that the democrats are letting the “evil” businesses “keep” a portion of the employee’s earned salary for the employer’s own uses?
Be interesting if that is the case, because “withholding” money according to the feds is treated as being held “in trust” for the benefit of the employees via payment of the employee’s future tax liability … which comes with fiduciary responsibilities to the employer not to spend the withheld income on anything other than forwarding it to the government for the benefit of the employee.
If that is what that is what this is be fund to see how that meshes with the trust fund argument. In either event, community colleges and universities still get nada.
- Pick a Name - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:19 pm:
Word, if you think about my post for 30 seconds, you will understand I didn’t miss a doggone thing.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:19 pm:
===How do you apply a credit against tax liability that doesn’t exist for a not-profit?===
Again, it’s a credit on the WITHHOLDING. Don’t be so stupid. Have you ever heard of the EDGE credit? Pretty much the same thing.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 2:20 pm:
==The one positive out of this is that once the $15/hr sets in, all public assistance will end. I think.==
I doubt it will end completely, but I’d be happy with a reduction in the number of people who qualify. I don’t care about the Conn’s complaints regarding their profit margin when I’m already paying for the public benefits that their cooks/cashier/busboys receive.
- No relation - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 3:06 pm:
Anon - From the bill, as Rich noted it is against the Withholding.
i) Each employer with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent
20 employees during the reporting period may claim a credit
21 against the payments due under this Section for each qualified
22 employee in an amount equal to the maximum credit allowable.
23 The credit may be taken against payments due for reporting
24 periods that begin on or after January 1, 2020, and end on or
25 before December 31, 2027.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 3:44 pm:
Pick, I beg to differ. We don’t run with the same crowds.Some people, like Honeybear, do care about their clients/employees receiving a living wage and not just their bottom line.
- Iron Lady - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 3:55 pm:
Sorry, anonymous 3:44 was me. Yeah pick, you missed. But go on and think (or don’t) about it.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 4:02 pm:
Why should Karen Conn or Iron Lady or anyone get over $100k of taxpayer money to sell twenty cents of bean juice to yuppies for $2.00
- Honeybear - Friday, Feb 15, 19 @ 4:39 pm:
anonymous 3:44, you know the Conns probably “care” about their employees. I’m sure they are fond of them. It’s human nature. That’s not the issue. It’s kinda like the old “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.
The Conns don’t ask about their employees financial well being and employees certainly don’t tell their employers that it’s hard to make it on what their paying.
It’s an unequal relationship to begin with.
It’s in a way like some of the Me Too quandaries. If you say something you might get fired. The only way to get more pay is to find a better paying job. Folks move on an they are replaced by an endless supply of job seekers. I guess I shouldn’t say endless because at some point a low paying business does exhaust the supply. Then “it’s hard to find qualified candidates”.
Don’t ask don’t tell.
I think an outcome of 15 and hour will be a more stable workforce.
Regardless, I don’t think the Conns are heartless.
I just think they look the other way too easily.
But privilege does that.
It gives justification.
It says
“I am more valuable because I am paid more”
But that is a fallacy
a fallacy that robs community members
of dignity and worth.
I believe Illinois has had enough of that with
Bruce Rauner
Folks I’m not saying this is going to be fun.
We’ve got a ton of tough times ahead.
but as my elderly neighbor said to me one day,
“You never know who’s gonna give you a glass of water”
We can’t be cruel like we’ve been.
We can’t support cruelty.
We’ve got to help our state and
All of it’s people