Is the Illinois minimum wage overly generous?
Not in the slightest. If the minimum wage had been linked to the nation’s inflation rate since 1968, the current level would be over $8.60 today. (See our update below.) If it had instead been indexed in 1978, it would be nearly $8.00 today, which is just shy of Illinois’ new rate. And shifting our minimum wage back to the federal level, as Bill Brady first advocated, would be a shock to the state’s low-income community. Such a change would reduce minimum wage worker’s annual pre-tax income by over 12 percent. Keep in mind that this a population that is already struggling to keep up with rising housing, food, child care, health care, and transportation costs. Indeed, a study by the Social Impact Research Center shows that the average single parent with a pre-schooler and a school-age child in Illinois must earn $23.22 per hour ($14.47 more than the new minimum wage) to reach “self-sufficiency.” On top of that, core employment laws are routinely ignored or exploited at job locations tha
