Do minimum wage hikes help low-income workers? Not always
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Minimum-wage workers, many of whom spent Thursday striking, should look at Illinois before convincing themselves that a higher minimum wage will solve their problems.
Illinois is one of the best paying states in the country, but the economic reality in the Land of Lincoln proves why a higher minimum wage does not make things better for low wage workers.
Illinois' $8.25 an hour is the fourth highest minimum wage in the country. Only Washington, Oregon and Vermont pay more.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Illinois has the second highest unemployment rate in the country. Only Nevada is worse.
Illinois' 9.2 percent jobless rate dwarfs the national rate -- 7.2 percent.
"While we can't place all the blame of our state's woes on the minimum wage, it clearly is a factor and one of the reasons Illinois continues to seriously lag behind our neighbors," Kim Clark Maisch, Illinois' director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said.
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