Rockford Record American, Nov 19, 2014
The Raise Illinois coalition launched a series of press events across the state Nov. 18 to call on lawmakers to immediately pass legislation during this year’s veto session to raise the minimum wage for working families.
Raise Illinois said voters delivered an overwhelming mandate during this election with 67 percent in support for increasing the minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2015, and that the state legislature must deliver real results for working families in Illinois. Support for the $10 minimum wage was bipartisan, with the minimum wage ballot question passing in almost all legislative districts, including most Republican legislative districts. ...
A diverse set of Raise Illinois coalition partners, which included low-wage workers and families, faith, civic, community and small business leaders joined lawmakers at press events and rallies across the state, including Chicago and surrounding suburbs, as well as Rockford, Peoria, Quad Cities and Metro East. ...
Raise Illinois highlighted a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute and Heartland Alliance about who would benefit from raising the minimum wage in Illinois. The study found that more than one in five workers in Illinois — about 1.1 million workers in the state — would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. It would also put more than $1.5 billion in the pockets of working families to spend on necessities and support small businesses.
That’s why small business owners are championing a raise to the state’s minimum wage. Dmitri Syrkin-Nikolau, founder and CEO of Dimo’s Pizza in Chicago, said: “As a small business owner, I know that running a business by keeping employees in poverty hurts economic growth as a whole. We need lawmakers to understand the value of a healthy employer-employee relationship and pass legislation like raising the minimum wage that ensures that this relationship flourishes.”
Robert Olson, owner of Olson & Associates in Springfield, Illinois, added: “Workers who make a part-time wage while working full-time are not able to support their families or be a good customer base for local businesses in their neighborhoods, towns or cities. Raising the minimum wage is a common-sense, first-step solution to building a healthy local economy.” ...
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