Illinois State Senate OKs Higher Minimum Wage

The Illinois Senate sent Gov. Rod Blagojevich a bill that would increase the state's minimum wage to $7.50 an hour in July, one of the highest rates in the country.

Blagojevich is expected to sign the measure, which he and fellow Democrats championed during the campaign for the November general election. It was approved on a 40-17 Senate roll call.

The proposal, approved by the House a day earlier, would boost the state's current $6.50 minimum wage by $1 an hour. It also would include annual increases that would eventually bring the wage rate to $8.25 an hour by 2010.

The measure allows a 50-cent-per-hour reduction in the minimum wage for workers under age 18 and for probationary workers.

As they prepared to wrap up their two-week veto session, lawmakers failed to stop a scheduled 22-percent increase in residential electrical rates for Commonwealth Edison Co. customers. The hike is to take effect in January when a 10-year rate freeze expires.

Senators today voted their own plan to phase in the rate increases, but the House won't consider the proposal, as Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) instead prefers a three-year extension of the rate freeze.

Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) favored a three-year phase in of the higher rates. Jones chastised Madigan -- though not by name -- for pushing the rate freeze for populist political reasons.

The minimum-wage vote came after Senate Democrats led the 40-16 passage of a plan to phase-in utility rate increases for ComEd residential customers by 7 percent for the next two years and 8 percent in the final year. Madigan has staunchly favored a continuation of an electric rate freeze for another three years.

Madigan's plan to impose a rate freeze didn't get enough votes to take effect immediately, but the plan is likely to come up again next month in the waning hours of the lame-duck legislature, when it will take fewer votes to pass.

Earlier today, state senators approved the funding needed to give themselves a 15.6-percent pay raise, voting to increase their paychecks beyond the 10 percent boost they approved two weeks ago.

The move marks the second time the Senate has voted to ratify higher paychecks since the Nov. 7 general election.

Legislation to fund the full 15.6-percent pay hike now goes to the House, where it faces an uncertain future. Madigan has questioned why the Senate waited until after the election to take action on higher salaries.