Illinois Senate backs $15 hourly minimum wage within 6 years

[TexasTowelie]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Senate voted Thursday to hike the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour within six years, quickly advancing a top campaign promise of the newly elected Democratic governor in a major industrial state that hasn't raised the pay floor in nearly a decade.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who in his third week in office has reveled in reversing four years of his Republican predecessor's conservative policies , lauded the Senate's 39-18 party-line action to gradually raise the pay for low-income workers.

"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," Pritzker told reporters in his Capitol after the vote.

Although Chicago in 2014 imposed its own wage minimum, which increases to $13 this year , the last statewide bump came in 2010. At $8.25 per hour, Illinois is $1 higher than the federal minimum wage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . While 16 states are at the federal level or lower — including Pennsylvania and Texas — states such as California, Washington, New York, Maine and Arizona are at $11 or more with increases scheduled in a dozen states.

Read more: https://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/illinois-senate-backs-hourly-minimum-wage-within-years/article_ab84d717-bde3-5898-bad1-73931f7c7843.html

[murielm99]

1. Yay!

This was one of JB's campaign promises.

[justhanginon]

2. Off to a good start. I hope Pritzker can turn aound

some of the ruinous policies Rauner foisted off on our state. What despicable governor he was. Rauner was a fraud from the very beginning of his run for governor.