Illinois Lawmakers Push For $25-Per-Hour Federal Minimum Wage

There's a push underway to significantly raise the minimum wage.

If you make minimum wage, you may be in store for quite the pay raise that would even out to about $52,000/year.

"Livable Wage For All" is under review and would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009.

It would require corporations with 500+ employees or make greater than $1 billion in revenue to pay employees $25-per-hour minimum beginning in 2031.

Multiple Illinois lawmakers are cosponsoring it, including Reps. Delia Ramirez and Jesús “Chuy” García.

Currently, minimum wage in Iowa is the federal one: $7.25 (which was made the minimum wage in 2009). As of it's green light in 2019, minimum wage in Illinois is $15 ($9 for tipped employees).

Illinois Rep. Ramirez said about the act:

I also know that the naysayers, the people who have profited off of starvation wages, will say that ‘we can't go to $25-per-hour. It will hurt our businesses,’. But you see, we should be doing everything in our power to support our small businesses. But these corporations, they're not hurting. They've never been hurting, at least not their CEOs, because they have made record profits off of your starvation wages, which is exactly why we came up with $25-per-hour for the federal minimum wage.

Under the 'Livable Wage For All' act, while corporations would be required to cough up the new $25-per-hour federal wage by 2031, it would be required for small businesses by 2038. It would also get rid of subminimum wage for tipped workers and youth workers.