Quinn, Brady spar as minimum wage climbs to $8.25
As Illinois' minimum wage workers awaited a pay boost to $8.25 an hour on Thursday, the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor dueled over whether the minimum is too high -- or should go even higher.
Speaking Tuesday at Edna's, a celebrated West Side Chicago soul food restaurant, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signaled the minimum wage issue will play a fundamental part in his campaign and said "a principle as old as the Bible" is at stake: that hard work shouldn't mean living in poverty.
Quinn said he supports indexing Illinois' minimum wage to inflation, as about 10 other states do. He sharply criticized Republican Bill Brady for suggesting the minimum wage should be rolled back by $1 to the federal level, which Quinn said would amount to a $2,000 annual pay cut for thousands of families.
"All these heroic people who get up every day and work hard to raise a family ... to tell them they're going to have their wages cut by $2,000 a year is just plain heartless and it's shameful," Quinn said.
He said he "won't let a day go by" without letting people know how he differs from Brady on the minimum wage.
Brady, the state senator from Bloomington, countered that Quinn's policies have pushed jobs to neighboring states. Brady said the federal minimum wage should be allowed to catch up with the Illinois minimum wage.
He appeared to back away from his earlier call to roll back the state's minimum wage by $1 an hour to match the federal level. Illinois should just wait and catch up, then stay level with the federal minimum wage, he told reporters after a City Club luncheon speech Tuesday.
"My position is we need a governor who will bring jobs back to Illinois," Brady said. "You can argue about what the wage would be, but if you don't have a job to tie to the wage, there's no value for an Illinois family."
Brady suggested Quinn's focus on the minimum wage is meant to draw attention away from the state's unemployment rate, which is at 10.8 percent.
"His policies have pushed jobs to neighboring states at the expense of Illinois families," Brady said of Quinn.
The minimum wage in states bordering Illinois is at the federal level, according to the Illinois Department of Labor.
On Thursday, the last scheduled increase in the state's minimum wage takes effect, a result of 2006 legislation passed by a Democratic-controlled Legislature. The state's minimum wage, earned by about 390,000 workers, will be $1 higher than the federal minimum. Someone working 40 hours a week at $8.25 an hour makes $17,160 a year.