* Bruce Rauner may, depending on the day, want to lower the minimum wage by a dollar an hour, but Sen. Kirk Dillard says he wants the “marketplace” to decide what the minimum wage should be. To me, at least, that sounds like he wants no statutory minimum wage at all.
Audio courtesy of John Gregory at the Illinois Radio Network…
The quote, in case you can’t listen to audio files at work…
“I am a, what I guess is known as a Jeffersonian free market principle guy. And I believe that the marketplace ought to set everything, including the minimum wage.”
Dillard also said he was against raising the minimum wage because it would cost jobs. Then he added this…
“The people who push for it in Springfield generally are Chicago legislators, minority legislators. But it really hurts the minority community because they’ll have fewer jobs for those in the minority community that those who try to push these things through the legislature are really trying to help.”
* By the way, John at IRN also shared the full Bruce Rauner audio where the candidate said unequivocally that he wanted to roll back the minimum wage by a dollar an hour…
Rauner’s quote…
“I will advocate moving the Illinois minimum wage back to the national minimum wage. I think we’ve got to be competitive here in Illinois. It’s critical we’re competitive. We’re hurting our economy by having the minimum wage above the national. We’ve got to move back to the national.”
Seems clear to me.
*** UPDATE *** From a press release…
Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, today said proposals by two gubernatorial candidates to change Illinois’ minimum wage rates are counter-productive for Illinois job growth and working families.
“We have Governor Quinn proposing to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, and Bruce Rauner talking about lowering it by $1. They are both out-of-touch with the needs of Illinois families and Illinois business,” Brady said.
“If we raise the rate, we discourage job growth. If we cut it, we impact hard-working Illinois families who depend on a minimum wage as better jobs continue to leave Illinois,” Brady said.
“I believe the state and minimum wage rates need to be paired and support a moratorium on increases in the Illinois minimum wage until the federal rate has caught up with ours,” he said.
Illinois’ minimum wage rate of $8.25 an hour is the fourth highest in the country and $1 higher than the federal rate.
“I understand the need for a reasonable minimum wage, as Illinois and the nation have lost higher-paying manufacturing jobs to service industry employment,” Brady said. “My focus will be on restoring more of those higher-paying jobs to Illinois, giving more of our families larger paychecks.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** From a press release…
Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford does not support lowering the state’s minimum wage, nor does he support increasing it at this time.
“Lowering the minimum wage in Illinois is a bad idea. Doing so would place an unfair burden on workers. I will never be a fan of taking money from peoples’ wallets, and that’s what lowering the minimum wage would do.”
“I believe every American should be able to make as much money as possible, legally and ethically. State government should not put an artificial cost of doing business increase on a business, church or local unit of government by increasing the minimum wage.”
