With the minimum wage debate raging across the country, state and Chicago area, Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley said this week that he doesn’t see a similar move taking shape in his community anytime soon.
“I’ve been busier than a one-armed boxer trying to get the city back on track, and that hasn’t even crossed my mind,” Motley said on Wednesday, Dec. 3, the day after Chicago aldermen voted 44-5 to enact a plan that will start by hiking the current $8.25 minimum wage to $10 next year.
The Chicago plan is designed to increase the local minimum wage in increments that will ultimately lead to a $13 hourly rate by 2019.
Asked if he’s heard any murmurings outside his administration about such a move, Motley added, “no — we haven’t had any discussions countywide, citywide, anywhere.”
“I think most mayors and municipalities are so wrapped up trying to [fill] the shortfalls of money coming to the cities — Motor Fuel Tax, everything else has subsided,” Motley continued. “So we’re trying to make this work, all of us, and the least of our worries right now is the minimum wage.”
Motley’s comments came on the same day the Illinois Senate attempted to push the issue forward on a statewide level, voting 39-18 on a plan that would set the minimum wage for workers 18 and older at $9 next July and increase it in increments to $11 hourly by 2019.
That bill, which would supersede Chicago’s home-rule measure, stalled on the final day of the Legislature’s veto session, as House Speaker Michael Madigan declined to call it up for a vote in his chamber. County votes on the Senate proposal included yeses from Democrats Melinda Bush of Grayslake, Terry Link of Waukegan and Julie Morrison of Deerfield, while Lake Barrington Republican Dan Duffy voted no.
“Illinoisans deserve a living wage,” Bush said in a statement following the vote.
She added that the Senate support was “in favor of working families, thanks in no small part to the resounding voice of Illinois citizens” in November’s advisory referendum that found 67 percent of voters statewide — and 65.2 percent in Lake County — supporting a $10 minimum wage.
“As we work to pull out of an economic recession, it becomes increasingly important that the minimum wage in Illinois is reflective of the cost of living in Illinois,” Bush said. “I believe we struck a fair balance between giving Illinois citizens a fair minimum wage while protecting Illinois employers by incorporating tax relief and making the change gradual over the course of five years.”
While the Senate bill waits to be taken up in the 99th General Assembly next year, Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor said on Thursday, Dec. 4, that it most likely will be up to the state to decide a question that not all local governments can address.
“It’s really not an issue for county government. We don’t have the authority that home-rule units of government like Chicago have to take action on the minimum wage,” Lawlor said. “I think it’s something that we need to look to our leaders in Springfield to flesh out.”
Asked what input he might lend if asked by legislators, Lawlor said, “honestly, with it not being a County Board issue, I don’t really have a position on it right now. Obviously, there was an advisory referendum that passed overwhelmingly, but there are a lot of different considerations for the state to look at — balance the need to grow our economy with the need to ensure people have the opportunity to support themselves.”
Both Lawlor and Michael Stevens, president and CEO of Lake County Partners, the non-profit consortium of public and private economic development efforts, said the current local focus is more on training and certification programs to fill gaps in workplace skills.
“I know from an economic-development perspective and what we’re focused on, [the minimum wage] hasn’t been at the forefront of discussion,” Stevens said. “We’re still focusing on things like closing the skills gap on the manufacturing side and continuing to attract the talent that the companies here need to succeed. That’s been more of a discussion as opposed to the wage.”
Stevens added that the mission of Lake County Partners doesn’t center on the service or retail sectors, saying the focus is “understanding what are the needs here in the near- and mid-term, the next 12 to 18 months, for employers and what skills they’re looking for, and then working with [them].”
Ron Oesterlein, executive director of the Waukegan Chamber of Commerce, also said he hasn’t observed a groundswell one way or the other on the concept of raising wages for workers, though he added that he has heard “pretty mixed [discussion] on the business side that it would be hard for smaller businesses.”
Waukegan’s 1st Ward alderman, Sam Cunningham, has advocated in the past for a minimum-wage increase, including at a downtown rally in September with U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider.
He said he hopes this week’s developments end up with a statewide solution, but didn’t rule out calling for local action if it falls through.
“I do believe the State of Illinois needs to pass some type of legislation that will give us guidance on this,” Cunningham said. “Otherwise, some city is going to be more, another city is going to be less, and you’ll have mom-and-pop businesses competing with each other, and nobody wants that.”
Cunningham, saying that working families would benefit from the extra dollars provided by a wage increase, added that “if the state does not pick it up, I would ask the mayor and myself and others to sit down with leaders in the small business community and see how it would affect them, and move on from there.”
For the time being, Motley said he and his financial staff are crafting a spending plan to offset a revenue shortage going into the next fiscal year rather than a proposal for an increased minimum wage.
“It’s nothing I’d want to take on right now,” Motley said. “Maybe somewhere in the future when I’ve got the city of Waukegan back in working order, I’d turn to that route. But right now, I’ve got my hands full trying to move the city forward.”