The Democratic-allied Americans United for Change, based in Washington, takes it bus tour to boost the federal minimum wage to Chicago and Belvidere on Monday and hits Springfield on Tuesday. The top of the Illinois Democratic 2014 ticket — Sen. Dick Durbin D-Ill. and Gov. Pat Quinn will be the headliners at a press conference the group is organizing Monday morning in Chicago at the Kluczynski Federal Building plaza, 230 S. Dearborn St.
This is a merging of a federal and state issues and November campaigns, since lawmakers in Washington and Springfield each have the power to raise minimum wages.
President Barack Obama has been pushing to raise the federal minimun wage from $7.25 to $10.10 by 2016. Quinn wants to raise the Illinois minimun wage of $8.25 to $10.00
Some of the others who are scheduled to be at the Chicago press conference: William McNary, Co-Director, Citizen Action Illinois, and US Citizen Action; April Verrett, Executive Vice President, SEIU HCI.
From Brad Woodhouse, President, Americans United for Change and former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee: “Unfortunately, the Tea Party-approved voting records of Senator Mark Kirk and Illinois’ Republican Congressmen show that they’re more interested in voting for minimum tax responsibility for millionaires and huge corporations that outsource jobs than helping hard working Illinois workers climb out of poverty and one rung closer to the middle class. Their priority should be providing a needed boost not just for the millions of struggling low-wage American workers that can barely survive on $7.25, but for the U.S. economy as a whole. It will create jobs because it puts more money in the pockets of workers who will quickly inject it back into the economy — workers that include child care providers, janitors, and nursing assistants and who are 35 years old on average. Millions of people with more money to spend on goods and services means businesses will need to hire more workers to meet the demand. Decades’ worth of research done after previous minimum wage increases shows nothing but net economic benefits as a result, which is why so many successful business leaders and over 600 economists including seven Nobel Laureates are calling on Congress to raise it again now.”
