IRMA President: ‘not just businesses which will be affected’ with pay hike

Posted on December 19, 2019

money — *The state’s minimum wage will go from From $8.25 an hour to $9.25 New Year’s Day. (Photo courtesy: Flickr)*

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – One of the New Laws in the New Year will have some workers happy … and some employers not.

The state’s minimum wage is going up – and fast. From $8.25 an hour to $9.25 New Year’s Day, $10 midyear, and $11 New Year’s Day 2021. And, says Illinois Retail Merchants Association president Rob Karr, it’s not just businesses which will be affected.

“Governmental entities who hire people like lifeguards and others, park districts, not-for-profit facilities – which are having a terrible time managing their budgets going forward. Thank, like, a YMCA, for example,” Karr says.

It’s zipping up quickly to catch up with Chicago.

“That’s well and good that the city of Chicago employers were on that path already,” he says. “They will have essentially been given ten years. Every employer outside the city of Chicago will have been given five.”

That’s to get up to $15 an hour.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].

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