Minimum wage increase passes Illinois House, heads to Senate

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Illinois' minimum wage would increase 35 cents an hour Jan. 1 and jump another $1 in 2005 under a plan the House approved Saturday.

Framed as a way to help impoverished families better provide for themselves, the measure passed 71-45 over Republicans' cries that it would drive business from the state.

The bill moved to the Senate for action on the last scheduled day of the legislative session.

Entry-level and low-skill wage-earners who make $5.15 an hour would get $5.50 on Jan. 1 and $6.50 in January 2005. It is a compromise; advocates wanted the full increase to take effect next year.

"We recognize that it doesn't take into consideration the cost of housing, food, shoe leather and clothes for the kids," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago. "This is not a living wage, which would be $12 or $13 an hour. But $6.50 an hour will help a lot of people who are stuck at $5.15."

Republicans assailed the proposal as another antibusiness attack by Democrats who also steered the passage Saturday of major fee increases and the elimination of business tax exemptions Saturday to corral a $5 billion budget deficit.

Businesses, especially on Illinois' borders, will flee to neighboring states that maintain the federally required $5.15 an hour, critics said.

"Metcalf, Ill., is 20 miles from the border with Indiana, where cigarettes are cheaper, gas is cheaper, and pretty much everything else is cheaper," said Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. "Why on earth would anyone put a gas station, a convenience store or a retail store in Metcalf, knowing they're going to have to pay a higher minimum wage, when they can locate 20 miles east?"