Workers employed at Illinois businesses outside of Cook County must be paid at least $11 per hour beginning Friday, the first day of the new year.
The pay hike is required by a 2019 Illinois law, enacted by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, that gradually increases the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025.
Illinois workers earning the minimum wage already saw their hourly pay boosted by $1 to $9.25 per hour on Jan. 1, 2020, and then to $10 per hour on July 1, 2020.
The state minimum wage now will continue increasing $1 per hour each New Year's Day until reaching the $15 per hour target.
There are two exceptions: Tipped employees can be paid 60% of the state minimum wage if gratuities make up the difference; and employees under age 18 who work fewer than 650 hours in a year can be paid a minimum wage of $8.50 per hour.
Under Illinois law, the youth minimum wage is scheduled to gradually rise to $13 per hour by 2025.
The Illinois Department of Labor is encouraging minimum wage employees to watch their paychecks to ensure time worked in 2021 is paid at the new rate.
Workers at businesses in suburban Cook County and the city of Chicago already are paid more than the state minimum wage.
The Cook County minimum wage is $13 per hour, while the lowest legal pay rate in Chicago is $13.50 per hour for small employers (four to 20 employees) and $14 per hour for large employers (21 or more employees).
In contrast, the minimum wage in Indiana remains $7.25 per hour, or $2.13 per hour for tipped employees — identical to the federal minimum wage last increased in 2009.
Despite repeated Democratic efforts to boost Indiana's minimum wage, Republican lawmakers at the Statehouse consistently have blocked proposals to pay the lowest-earning Hoosiers more money.
A 2011 statute, enacted by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, even forbids Indiana local governments from requiring businesses to pay a minimum wage higher than the federal rate.
According to the Federal Reserve, merely adjusting the $7.25 per hour rate to account for more than a decade of inflation would put the minimum wage at $8.64 per hour.
© Copyright 2024, nwitimes.com, Munster, IN