Minimum wage increase makes workers happy, business owners - not so much

From BND.com:

Brandon McMurray will not be getting a raise tomorrow.

The 23-year-old cashier at Pantera's Pizza in the Montclaire Shopping Center in Edwardsville already makes more than minimum wage because of his four years at the pizzeria.

"It's one of those things," McMurray said. "I've been here for a while and make enough over that. It would be nice to make a little more."

But when Illinois' minimum wage officially increases Tuesday, some of his co-workers will be making a little more than they did before.

"They're excited for it," McMurray said. "Every little bit that you can get helps out."

"With prices going up, and with gas prices at $4, everybody can use a little more cash these days."

His boss, Jeff Tolliver, on the other hand, isn't looking forward to the wage increase. It's not that Tolliver doesn't want to pay his employees more, but rather the pressure it puts on the cost of doing business.

"I have to pass it on to customers, and that's not really good for anybody," he said.

This year's quarter increase in Illinois -- from $7.50 an hour to $7.75 -- won't raise much fuss, Tolliver said, but when the state minimum wage went up from $6.50 to $7.50 last year, some of his current employees were asking for a raise.

"It's really bad for morale, and already we're in a high-turnover industry," Tolliver said. "This really doesn't help anything. It puts pressure on prices. Everything is going up as it is. Automatically, the minimum wage goes up also. It just makes a bad situation worse, to be quite honest."

Illinois will raise its minimum wage for the fourth time in as many years Tuesday with 25-cent rate increases scheduled for each of the next two years. By July 1, 2010, Illinois workers will be earning $8.25 an hour, which by then could become the highest minimum wage in the country.

The series of wage hikes has been championed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who pushed the initiative through the General Assembly. The new $7.75 wage is estimated to generate an additional $520 in annual wages for full-time minimum wage earners -- to a new total of $16,120 annually for a worker on a 40-hour week. The governor has cited that at this time of economic crisis, the minimum wage increase will help Illinois workers support their families and help them afford basic necessities.

Read the whole thing. I found the article via Newsalert. And while you're there check out this post on Cook County's sales tax. This sales tax at 10.25% is touted as the highest in the nation.