 |
| RAUNER: $7.25? |
In
fact, I suspect most people don’t give much thought to the issue; unless they
happen to be in circumstances under which that is all anyone wants to pay them –
and those employers go out of their way to complain that even that amount of
money is too much.
SO
I’M GUESSING it’s going to be a bit of a shock to many people as this election
cycle we’re now in will force them to give a thought to just how little someone
can be paid for their work.
Currently,
employers in Illinois are required to pay their hourly workers no less than
$8.25 per hour (which I would have thought of as a fortune back when I was 16
and didn’t know any better).
Gov.
Pat Quinn is on the record as supporting an increase of the state minimum wage
to $10 per hour. While voters in Chicago will be asked to vote on a referendum
question as to whether the minimum wage ought to be boosted to $15 per hour.
Which
is the rate that many of those organized labor protests outside of fast food
franchise restaurants are demanding. I can recall when I was in junior high
school, one of my fellow students felt the need to boast that her father had a
$15 hourly salary – which was meant to sound impressive.
THEN
AGAIN, $15 an hour doesn’t buy as much as it did a third of a century ago.
On
the Republican side of the electoral equation, most of the candidates for
governor are trying to avoid saying anything about the issue. Why tick off poor
people who can vote (even though I suspect some GOP types wish that somehow the
vote could be taken from them)?
 |
| QUINN: $10? |
Except
for Bruce Rauner, the wealthy venture capitalist and friend of Mayor Rahm
Emanuel. He used a candidate forum in the Quad Cities to say he wants to drop
the state’s minimum wage, although in recent days he's tried to back track by saying he merely wants to study the issue.
A reduction is possible because the U.S. government has a $7.25 per hour minimum wage that
applies across the nation, unless individual states wish to go higher. Illinois
does. Indiana – for example – does not, which translates even at higher pay
scales into the idea among Indiana residents that they have to come work in
Illinois to make real money.
RAUNER
SPEWS RHETORIC about wanting Illinois to be “competitive” with other states,
implying that companies will want to locate elsewhere because they can save a
buck (literally) on labor costs.
 |
| CHICAGO VOTERS: $15??? |
Actually,
it just shows him taking sides, and it certainly isn’t with organized labor.
This will be yet another reason why some of the unions in this state will
decide to put their campaign cash into supporting anybody BUT Bruce.
Of
course, some of the national organizations are choosing to give their cash to
Quinn instead of a Republican primary campaign that they probably wouldn’t
support in the November general election.
There
are going to be a lot of choices for people who wouldn’t otherwise bother to
even think about the issue. It will be curious to see who winds up prevailing,
and how much of a statement it winds up making about the value of labor in
Illinois.
AS
FOR RAUNER, his attitude on this issue and other related questions winds up
coming across as someone who doesn’t value the labor that does the work that
enables companies to succeed.
It
makes him seem like someone who wants to blame his employees for the fact that
his profit margin isn’t higher. He’d better not be surprised when such an
attitude winds up costing him votes come the March 18 primary.
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