Minimum
wage employees could soon see bigger pay checks, if the governor gets his way.
Illinois
Governor Pat Quinn says "over the next four years we must raise the
minimum wage to at least $10 dollars an hour."
He's
pushing for it to go from $8.25 an hour up - to $10 dollars an hour. LoRayne Logan
President of Workplace places people in entry level jobs and feels raising the
minimum wage would be a mistake.
Logan explains "people
will cut back on hours because they can't afford the payroll on it. It can have
a downside when it's intended to have a good side."
Logan fears a ripple
effect, pushing people who need job skills out of jobs and into the
unemployment line. Logan
says "people who have the skill for today's economy are already making
more than $10 dollars and people who will have to be forced up to $10 dollars
are not the people that companies can easily afford to pay ten, so it's going
to be a real serious problem."
Republican
State Senator Dave Syverson agrees. Syverson says "raising the minimum wage is
only going to increase the unemployment rate.
It doesn't work."
Others
call it the right thing to do. The group Raise Illinois says the increase will allow
"working families to help make ends meet," and notes that if the minimum
wage had kept pace with inflation since its creation it would be at $10.60
today.
Logan says that viewpoint
ignores the impact of automation on today's workforce. She explains "anything
that you can now have a machine do instead of increasing the wages. That's
what's going to happen"
