Illinois Senate votes to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2025

Illinois Senate votes to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2025, a top Pritzker priority


Sponsor Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, center, is hugged by Sen. Iris Martinez, D-Chicago, after the Illinois Senate voted to raise the state's minimum wage Feb. 7, 2019, at the Illinois state Capitol in Springfield. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register)


Dan Petrella Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune


The Illinois Senate on Thursday voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.25 per hour next year and to $15 per hour by 2025, a big step toward giving Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker an early victory in the opening days of his term.

Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25 has stood since 2010, even as Chicago and Cook County have raised theirs. Now, the bill to raise the statewide wage moves to the House, where Democrats led by Speaker Michael Madigan could change the proposal before it lands on Pritzker’s desk. But top Democrats including the new governor on Thursday said they don’t believe changes are needed.

If the bill becomes law, Illinois would be among the first states to approve a minimum wage of $15 per hour, a goal set by the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement. California will hit that level in 2022, Massachusetts will in 2023 and New Jersey in 2024. The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour.

Pritzker has made putting Illinois on that list his first legislative priority, and he could sign the bill before delivering his budget proposal on Feb. 20 if the House votes next week. That would be a high-profile win for Pritzker and the Democrats who control the Capitol after four years of the party’s lawmakers fighting with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. But it also would represent an affront to the GOP lawmakers and business groups Pritzker pledged work with when he was sworn in last month.

“Today the state Senate made it clear that working families in Illinois deserve a raise, and they’re going to get one,” Pritzker said after the Senate vote. “If you live in this state and put in a hard day’s work, you should be able to afford to put a roof over your head and food on the table.”

“This is a long time coming, and we’re not done yet, but we’re closer than ever before,” he said.

The Senate has passed several minimum wage bills in recent years, but only one also has been approved by the House. Rauner vetoed that one in 2017. It would have raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour over five years.

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State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, gives his remarks on his opposition to Senate Bill 1, at the Illinois State Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP)


This time, the Senate approved the bill on a 39-18 vote along party lines. It calls for a $1 hourly pay hike at the beginning of next year, followed by a 75-cent increase to $10 on July 1, 2020. The minimum wage would then increase by $1 per hour each year on Jan. 1 until it hits $15 per hour in 2025. The proposal would preserve the way restaurants and other employers with tipped workers count gratuities toward employees’ wages, securing the backing of the Illinois Restaurant Association.

“I anticipate the speaker will support the bill,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said after the Senate vote.

The bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who for years has been trying to raise the minimum wage, said that people who work full time at the current rate fall below the federal poverty line.

“We’re keeping people in poverty on a national level,” she said. “That is why you see so many states moving the minimum wage.”

Republicans in the Senate, none of whom voted in favor of the bill, contended that businesses would have to cut jobs, raise prices or close. Plus, they said, a wage hike could strain the budgets of school districts, state universities, community colleges and social service agencies that rely on state funding.

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“You guys keep talking about who’s going to be helped,” said Sen. Chapin Rose, a Republican from downstate Mahomet. “I’m worried about who’s going to be hurt.”

Democrats tried to brush aside concerns about job losses, saying that raising the minimum wage will boost the economy by putting more money in the pockets of the people who are most likely to spend it. And Pritzker promised that the budget he proposes later this month will account for the cost of the minimum wage increase.

Lightford said her bill includes provisions to address the concerns of small-business owners and employers that hire a large number of teenage workers. It proposes a tax credit that would help employers with 50 or fewer full-time employees offset some of the cost of raising wages. Employers would be able to claim a tax credit for 25 percent of the cost in 2020. The credit would scale back annually, then eventually phase out.

Businesses would be able to continue paying a lower wage to workers younger than 18 if they work fewer than 650 hours in a year. The minimum wage for younger employees — currently $7.75 per hour — would increase to $8 on Jan. 1 and peak at $13 per hour in 2025.

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State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, center, is applauded after Senate Bill 1 passed the Illinois Senate with a vote of 39-18 at the Illinois State Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP)


Still, top business groups have fought hard against the wage hike and have pushed for setting the minimum wage at different levels in different parts of the state. They contend that the higher cost of living in Chicago and Cook County justifies a higher minimum wage that would be unaffordable for many businesses in the collar counties and Downstate.

Chicago’s minimum wage of $12 per hour is set to increase to $13 on July 1, when Cook County’s also will increase, from $11 to $12. The county rate will increase to $13 next year.

“We are disappointed the Senate did not take the time to address ways to lessen the impact of an unprecedented wage hike, particularly on suburban and downstate employers,” Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said in a statement. “We will continue to seek a compromise in the House, and we urge legislators to not rush this issue as they consider the implications this will have on employers and employees in their communities.”

State Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Chicago Democrat who is sponsoring the measure in the House, said he doesn’t anticipate making any changes. He noted that the statewide minimum wage wouldn’t match the rate in Chicago and Cook County until 2023, when it would hit $13 per hour.

“Members from every region of the state supported this legislation in the Senate because they know that no matter what community you live in, $8.25 is a poverty wage and that folks in their district need a raise, no matter if they’re in Chicago or rural Illinois,” he said.

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