52 Comments - Not It - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:29 am: I wish the General Assembly and Governor would move this fast to fix our State’s other problems. But I guess fixing the pension system isn’t as much fun as giving away other people’s money. - DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:37 am: Glad it done still wish it was indexed for inflation - Actual Red - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:38 am: @Not IT Who is giving anything away? This is about wages, you know, like compensation for labor? - Perrid - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:41 am: Actual Red, Not It is being snarky because this is going to be an extra expense for businesses and through them their customers. Making businesses pay more for this is easier than coughing up more money to put into the pension system. - Honeybear - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:41 am: This means a lot to the people I see everyday in the struggling Metro East. I wish they could get that help faster. But I understand and appreciate The political capital that was expended for the good people I work with. Illinoisans are going to benefit regular folk will benefit. I am thankful That struggling folks were put first That says a lot - Peoples Republic of Oak Park - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:41 am: ILGOP should really just give up on trying to fight economic populism. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:43 am: ==Pritzker pledged to govern differently and listen to all parties and stakeholders, but those turned out to meaningless words.== First of all he said all along he was going to do this. Second, when you are against raising the minimum wage what exactly is their to negotiate on? I get that he’s doing his job being the attack dog but he’s going to have a long four years if he’s going to spend his time whining every time Pritzker does something. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:45 am: ==But I guess fixing the pension system== They are focusing on paying what is owed, which is the only fix you can do. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:45 am: Congratulations and thanks to the activists who have been working on this for a long time. Thanks also to supportive legislators and the governor. Many detractors of the minimum wage hike support a trillion-plus dollar tax handout to the wealthiest, consequences be darned, but when it comes to raising the lowest wages, here come all the reasons why it’s a bad idea and gut-twisting angst. We need to redistribute wealth and income in a way that’s healthier for our state and country, to have an economic system that benefits more people. Redistribution is not a bad word. Many right wingers love redistributing wealth to those who are already multimillionaires or billionaires. Super-wealthy GOP donors reportedly threatened to cut off financial support if the federal tax cuts were not passed. The previous governor wanted to give businesses, many who are super-rich corporations, a permanent advantage. - OutHereInTheMiddle - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:46 am: I agree, DuPage. And I would have preferred a solution that recognized regional differences in the cost of living. $15/hour looks very different in Golconda & Lake Forest. Having said that I think income disparity is one of the issues that can rip society apart. The “Hunger Games” model is nothing to reach for. - Annonin' - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:47 am: The GOPies sputterin’ is funny. We like his reference to negotiations and the GOPies blather about no bargaining….How did they get the 6 year ramp, tax credit…?????? - Nanker Phelge - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:49 am: 40% of the Illinois work force just got a raise?!? Really? If that is true, what does that say about the Illinois economy? What impact will this have on businesses already paying more than the minimum. Will they feel pressured to raise wages? Earth Friendly Products starts people out at $17. Is that going to be $18 in 2020? $24 in 2025? - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:49 am: Did proponents have these business groups in favor lined up before the vote? If so, I guess I missed it. - Perrid - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:51 am: wordslinger, so did I. - Unpopular - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:52 am: The only option left for conservatives in Illinois is to move out of Illinois. There is no representation of Conservative values, and there will not be any. Congrats to the Dems on passing this measure, it will fit perfectly into the philosophy of those left in Illinois in 2025. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:54 am: ==The only option left for conservatives in Illinois is to move out of Illinois. There is no representation of Conservative values== Another victim heard from. Grow up. - Supporter but frustrated - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:55 am: I applaud the general assembly, and the governor for passing this pivitol piece of legislation. My only concern is I’m a state employee with a bachelor’s degree and if you look pay check, I’m working for less than 15 dollars an hour. I’m going to be 30 soon, and I could not afford to live in the district I work in on this salary. Also worth noting that it is very rare anybody stays in my position for 5 years, so I’m paying into a pension i’ll never see a dime of because of the new tiered system they put in. I love my job and I genuinely get to help people on a daily basis, but I’m unable to pay rent, bills, etc. I realize it’s going to help a lot of people, but maybe they can start helping staff too? - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:57 am: ===to move out of Illinois=== If all you live for is social issues, then by all means move to Mississippi or someplace where you’ll certainly feel less triggered. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 11:57 am: “Sadly, as with all such delusions, reality has a way of breaking in and so it is with this idea of a $15 national minimum wage. And here is a bit of that reality: an analysis of what will actually happen if anyone is deluded enough to try to make $15 an hour the national minimum wage for the US. 6.6 million, yes, that’s 6,600,000 jobs will be lost. That’s actually more people than earn at or under the current minimum wage.” The lead writer is Douglas Holtz-Eakin who used to be the director of the Congressional Budget Office. If you trust any of the numbers that Congress has used to pass laws in the past then you’ve trusted Holtz-Eakin’s work before. The other point is that they take, quite reasonably, three different ways of trying to measure the effect: CBO In 2014, the CBO examined the impact of raising the federal minimum wage to $9.00 or $10.10 per hour, two of the most popular proposals at the time. For the $10.10 proposal, the CBO found that the policy would result in employment falling by 500,000 jobs relative to their projected 2016 baseline.” Why not have an off ramp provision in the bill if the people we are trying to help actually lose their jobs despite to bill’s good intentions? https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/08/07/a-15-minimum-wage-would-cost-6-6-million-jobs-yes-6600000-jobs/#7e23f8a53db7 - A 400lb. Guy on a bed - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:04 pm: So let me get this straight, CEO’s can make whatever they want and raise prices-that’s OK but raising the minimum wage will raise prices that’s not OK. Got it. - illini - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:05 pm: If all the conservatives in my county moved to Mississippi half the property would be for sale, the schools would have to close and there would be new opportunity for people to finally earn close to a living wage. - Fixer - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:12 pm: Dear Tim, not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, now is it? I seem to recall something regarding negotiations and the governor doing whatever he pleased until he lost repeatedly in court for doing so. - wally the wise - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:18 pm: As to the comment ““More than 40% of our workers just received a well-deserved and long-overdue raise…” the other half of that should be, “but 1/2 of you won’t have a job because your employers can’t afford you now. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:21 pm: “Business owners ranging from restaurant owners to manufacturers support raising the minimum wage because it will help businesses, communities and the economy as workers have more money to spend.” Obvious question… then why weren’t they already doing it? - Perrid - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:27 pm: “then why weren’t they already doing it?” competition. The majority of their competition is in state, so they would lose business if the shop next store had lower prices. That’s going to happen much less if the whole state gets an increase at the same time. Just doing some fairly obvious speculation, I obviously can not read their minds. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:29 pm: ===reality has a way of breaking in=== The reality is that most employees benefit, it helps to focus on the positive aspects of policy: “Nevertheless, even if we take CBO’s estimates at face value, the benefits of the higher minimum wage far outweigh the losses in employment, a conclusion obscured by the singular focus on job losses. The fourth panel of Table 1 shows that if CBO is correct and the proposal led to 0.5 million fewer jobs, this would mean that 2.9 percent of directly affected workers would experience a job loss. This implies—again, taking CBO’s results for granted—that, on average at any point in time, 97.1 percent of 17 million workers would remain employed and have an hourly wage that is 14.5 percent higher. The employment costs of the policy are even lower when we compare them with the entire directly and indirectly affected workforce receiving wage increases (CBO assumed that indirectly affected workers would not experience any employment reductions). In that case, 98.0 percent of directly and indirectly affected workers would remain employed and receive a sizable wage increase and only 2 percent would suffer a job loss. Overall, the overwhelming share of workers affected benefit from the minimum wage increase.” https://www.epi.org/publication/bold-increases-in-the-minimum-wage-should-be-evaluated-for-the-benefits-of-raising-low-wage-workers-total-earnings-critics-who-cite-claims-of-job-loss-are-using-a-distorted-frame/ - freefinally101 - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:30 pm: What is this going to do to people on a fixed income.Seniors in particular. - PJ - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:31 pm: ==Obvious question… then why weren’t they already doing it?== Pretty much all of those already pay at or above $15. And for supportive businesses who don’t, the reason would be that they could be fatally undercut on production costs by firms who would rather the state subsidize their workers via food stamps instead of paying a living wage. That’s my favorite part about the conservative angst. It’s not possible to feed a family on 40 hrs/week of Illinois minimum wage in a city like Chicago, so those people have to use food stamps. It’s just state-funded welfare for businesses who can’t operate efficiently enough to pay their workers enough to survive. In free market terms, we’d call such a business a failure. - njt - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:38 pm: 12:29 was me apologies - Ron - In Texas - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:38 pm: @Illini… “If all the conservatives in my county moved to Mississippi half the property would be for sale, the schools would have to close and there would be new opportunity for people to finally earn close to a living wage.” Wait, What? are you making a statement that big loss of population is good for your county? I know it wont happen, but those two ideas you just dropped together seem to NOT mesh very well. - Bigtwich - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:41 pm: Opponents of minimum wage have been parioting the same lines since, well forever. “Rome, 2,000 years ago, fell because the government began fixing the prices of services and commodities. We, however, know what has always happened when governments have tried to superintend the industry of private persons. The final result has always been distress, misery and despair.” ~ Gary Harrington, National Publishers Association 1937 https://nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Consider-The-Source-Minimum-Wage.pdf - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:43 pm: “The only option left for conservatives in Illinois is to move out of Illinois.” There’s Alabama, where a newspaper editor is calling on the KKK to terrorize Democrats and moderate Republicans. How dare them big-city liberals bring them higher wages anyway? - Pundent - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:49 pm: =There is no representation of Conservative values, and there will not be any.= When did the litmus test of conservative values turn into not paying people a decent wage? - RNUG - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:51 pm: == What is this going to do to people on a fixed income.Seniors in particular. == Depends. If national $15 passes, it will become part of the normal price inflation, and should end up being reflected in the CPI-U that is used to adjust Social Security … assuming the senior citizen is receiving SS. It won’t be perfect because adjustments based on CPI are trailing reactions, so you are always a year behind. Other fixed income, again, depends on whether or not there is a COLA adjustment of some kind. Worst case, it will slowly erode purchasing power for those on a truly fixed income. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 12:59 pm: –”“More than 40% of our workers just received a well-deserved and long-overdue raise…” the other half of that should be, “but 1/2 of you won’t have a job because your employers can’t afford you now.– Why’s that? Is that what happened when the Illinois minimum wage went from $2.30 in 1990 to $4.25 in 1992? And then again to $5.15 in 1998? (hint: employment grew by 900K). - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 1:09 pm: I am all for an increase in the minimum wage… But… I run a non-profit.. and I pay more than the minimum wage. I will be able to absorb the first few rounds of increases, but without a corresponding increase in my state and federal grants, we will need to rethink our operations and staffing levels. I wish we could pay more, and over the last few years, we have elevated salaries significantly. It’s going to hurt though. If the Governor submits an “austere” budget and our labor costs go up, I will be forced to make some tough decisions. I’m not a for-profit. I can’t simply raise the price of my product. Most of our work is grant based, so per unit revenue is fixed. Again, I’m all for it, but I think the Governor and the General Assembly should have slowed down a little bit and asked a few more questions. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 1:12 pm: (hint: employment grew by 900K). This is 2020. - DiRT - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 1:16 pm: Plus, you know AFSCME and SIEU will get pay raises because the MW went up. Where is all of this money going to come from? “The rich”? What rich? The rich in Illinois all work for the government. They aren’t going to pay for it. If you currently make less than $200,000 at your job, even if you are making minimum wage, you’re going to pay for it. - Honeybear - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 1:44 pm: Dirt, only people who make the minimum wage will be gradually raised. That includes some AFSCME’s and substantially more SIEU’s. But this all depends on the contracts that they have. Most State worker AFSCME’s are not effected and will not get a raise. But come on, Illinois is still flat tax and the sky is not falling. I have to say, I feel so much better about myself. When I am histrionic it usually has some basis in reality, (state workers leaving, no step back pay, etc. I did miss on Rauners big October surprise but hey) Minimum Wage has brought out such wailing and gnashing of teeth that I feel like I’m not so crazy after all. - RNUG - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 2:22 pm: -Honeybear-, I have to dissgree a bit with you. The $15 minimum wage will, over time, push up the other wages. Not all businesses will do so, but some of them that have both minimum wage and higher earners (restaurants for example) will also jump the higher earners when the minimum jumps … otherwise they will eventually lose their more skilled workers (managers, kitchen staff). The bump, however, may be in place of the annual raise those companies tend to give their full time employees. - Anon - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 2:43 pm: I researched Social Security benefits for the state of Illinois in 2018. The average Social Security check for 2018 was $1434.34 per month. There are 1,559,889 seniors on Social Security in Illinois. Depicting a 40 hour work week, there are 2080 hours per year equivalent. This gives an equivalent wage of $8.28 per hour. Not too much different than our current minimum wage. There is no way Social Security can keep up with the minimum wage increases depicted by the new law using the CPI-U. So, it appears to me that we are throwing our Senior citizens under the bus. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for helping people on the lower income levels if all things stayed the same. However, we know this will not happen. Simple economics, costs of goods will increase to compensate for increase costs. The major benefactor will be the government. It will receive more revenue from income tax and sales tax. The poor will remain at the bottom of the income scale and retirees will loose significant buying power. Of course I could be wrong, but retirees will be forced to leave the state to survive. Those that are solely on Social Security have to make decisions as to buying their medications or food now. - NormalNews - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 2:56 pm: Can you say GOVERNMENT CREATED MASSIVE INFLATION? - The Mythical Middle - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 3:25 pm: -Anon- Why do cost of goods always have to rise when worker pay rises? CEO and stock holder pay could fall to absorb some of this. That would be better than going out of business. Oh right, they all have golden parachutes so they could actually make more money by going out of business and finding a job elsewhere. - City Zen - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 4:17 pm: ==CEO and stock holder pay could fall to absorb some of this.== Stockholder pay? Stockholders as in the state employees whose pension funds are invested in those stocks? - Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 6:18 pm: ===Oh right, they all have golden parachutes so they could actually make more money by going out of business and finding a job elsewhere.=== Tell that to all the Mom and Pop businesses affected by all this. My late father’s old restaurant would have seen wage and withholding increases in the first year of nearly $95,000. Blindsided expense. But you are right, all the family would have had to do is eliminate their golden parachutes, sell off a few shares of stock, reach into the cookie jar and pull out $95,000. Easy. Sheesh. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 6:26 pm: ——$2.30 in 1990 to $4.25 in 1992———- $2.30 ended last day of ‘77, and in ‘90 it was $3.80 - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 7:38 pm: —-$2.30 in 1990 to $4.25 in 1992———- $2.30 ended last day of ‘77, and in ‘90 it was $3.80– I’ll show my homework. How about you? https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/STTMINWGIL - RNUG - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 7:48 pm: Ancedotal but interesting … my son told me tonight the south 6th Walmart just started tearing out a bunch of cashier stations to replace with self checkouts. Anywhere else I would say it means something but Walmart never had more than a few cashiers on duty at a time anyway. I’ll also note Walmart is a different company now that the kids turned tunning it over to s professional asset management firm. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 8:06 pm: –Ancedotal but interesting … my son told me tonight the south 6th Walmart just started tearing out a bunch of cashier stations to replace with self checkouts. Anywhere else I would say it means something but Walmart never had more than a few cashiers on duty at a time anyway– Since Day One, the business models for Big Box and fast-food have been to boost margins on low prices by providing the only the barest amount of service necessary from human beings. Seriously, has anyone at WalMart ever asked “if they could help you find anything?” Anyone at McDonald’s check “how was you meal, can I get you anything more?” For crying out loud, they expect you to clear up after yourself. That business model is not going to change, no matter the minimum wage. - WhooMe - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 9:02 pm: “Business for a Fair Minimum Wage”???…How would any insurance agency have any minimum wage employees, or know anything about the minimum wage?== Best thing to do is Eliminate the Minimum Wage, and let businesses really compete fairly for people. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 19, 19 @ 10:50 pm: –This is 2020.– Maybe you should sit this one out, champ. - RNUG - Wednesday, Feb 20, 19 @ 12:50 am: == Anyone at McDonald’s check “how was you meal, can I get you anything more?” == -word-, believe it or not, our local McD franchise holder has been seriously upgrading his service level. Yes, there are order kiosks or the phone app if you want to use them, or they still have human order takers, but the owner has the “displaced” employees delivering the food to your table, and coming back and checking that it was correct with no problems. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.