NPR (formerly National Public Radio) reports:
By a 44-5 vote, Chicago's City Council set a minimum-wage target of $13 an hour, to be reached by the middle of 2019. The move comes after Illinois passed a nonbinding advisory last month that calls for the state to raise its minimum pay level to $10 by the start of next year.
The current minimum wage in Chicago and the rest of Illinois is $8.25. Under the ordinance, the city's minimum wage will rise to $10 by next July and go up in increments each summer thereafter.
[...]The bill states that "rising inflation has outpaced the growth in the minimum wage, leaving the true value of lllinois' current minimum wage of $8.25 per hour 32 percent below the 1968 level of $10.71 per hour (in 2013 dollars)."
It also says nearly a third of Chicago's workers, or some 410,000 people, currently make $13 an hour or less.
[...][In the 2014] midterm elections, voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota approved binding referendums that raise their states' wage floor above the federal minimum.
Media Matters for America notes that The Chicago Tribune's coverage tried to trot out the *job-killer* dead horse once again, to which the response was
According to a March 2014 report(PDF) prepared for the Seattle Income Inequality Advisory Committee titled "Local Minimum Wage laws: Impacts on Workers, Families, and Businesses", city-wide minimum wage increases in multiple locations--Albuquerque, NM; Santa Fe, NM; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC--produced "no discernible negative effects on employment" and no measurable job shift from metropolitan to suburban areas.
Related:
Seattle Approves $15 Minimum Wage
Mayor's Minimum Wage Veto Overridden by San Diego City Council
States That Raised Their Minimum Wages Are Experiencing Faster Job Growth
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 08 2014, @08:36PM
unless they've got some extremely low expectations of life
That assumes anyone's expectations have anything to do with their local economy. Or their local economy is somehow bound to reflect their expectations. Or for that matter, the local economy has anything to do with their actual ability. Sure... go ahead, get that early childhood education degree... only half of you are getting teaching jobs, the other half get to waitress for minimum wage. Median student might not be some kind of hero, but they will be working for minimum wage as a waitress/bartender, at least in that sector. Get that petroleum engineer degree in 1985 in Texas, or Aerospace Engineering in the 70s, hope you like driving taxi.
"Oh well, turn them into Soylent Green" seems kinda harsh.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Tuesday December 09 2014, @12:27AM
get that early childhood education degree.. only half of you are getting teaching jobs
I would think that would be a fairly safe and sensible degree to get, in a country where the general situation is that both parents need to work to support the family. **Somebody** has to raise the kids.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 09 2014, @01:16AM
Or for that matter, the local economy has anything to do with their actual ability. Sure... go ahead, get that early childhood education degree... only half of you are getting teaching jobs, the other half get to waitress for minimum wage.
Sadly, that is one degree that is very disconnected from ability.