Leading Business Group Argues Against $15 Minimum Wage Proposal
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Business groups fought Wednesday in Springfield for a proposal to raise Illinois' minimum wage to $15.
The bill before a legislative committee would raise the minimum wage to $15 by the year 2022, but Rob Karr, President and CEO of Illinois Retail Merchants Association said businesses are already hurting from the previous wage increases. WBBM's Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports.
"We're getting calls from businesses repeatedly, that they are seeing their bottom line increases right now, 25 to 30 percent higher than the same time last year," Carp said. "And the city has only gone to 11. The county has not even started their increase yet."
Backers said there would be a tax credit to help small businesses recoup the cost of the wage hike, but Karr dismisses that.
"The tax credit is so complicated, so limited that no it will not have much marginal impact at all, especially when you are going to something as high as $15," Karr said.
Karr's discounting claims the $15 wage adopted in New York City and San Francisco is not hurting business there.
"I think it is going to be a tough sell," Karr said. "But I think it is important to know, none of those jurisdictions actually achieved $15 yet. They are already experiencing negative economic consequences for their decisions. They are not even close to $15 yet and they have done that."
Advocates for the higher wage insists big businesses can afford it and low wageworkers need it. Proponents said workers could not really live on wages lower than $15.
