Minimum Wage Increase Stalled

Legislation to increase the minimum wage was upended when it became apparent that the House didn't have the necessary votes to advance a bill. Some contend that the passage of an ordinance increasing the minimum wage to $13 in Chicago undermined support for a statewide minimum wage bill among Chicago legislators who, for political reasons, didn't want to vote for an increase that would be less than the $13 Chicago wage.  

Still, supporters of a statewide minimum wage increase definitely made themselves heard at the Statehouse today with chants of "raise the wage." 

These kinds of rallies are valuable in that they make activists feel engaged, but they rarely affect the ultimate outcome of legislation. And that ended up being the case here.

Still, the Senate decided to move forward with a bill to increase the minimum wage to $11 an hour in what is best described as a largely symbolic gesture considering that the House had already adjourned "Sine Die."  This means that the House will not reconvene until the 99th General Assembly is sworn into office and is therefore unable to vote on HB 4733. An exception would be if the House convened a special session, but that's unlikely to occur. 

In addition to increasing the minimum wage, HB 4733 included a home rule preemption to prevent Chicago from increasing its minimum wage above $13 an hour. 

HB 4733, which passed 39-18-1, was sponsored by Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Westchester). Senator Lightford has worked tirelessly on this issue for quite some time and was obviously pleased to pass the bill out of the Senate. 

The only problem was that it had no place to go.