Will County Gazette

Veteran Illinois state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) struggles to comprehend Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s marked defiance.

“All the business groups have been asking since he shut the state down for him to postpone this minimum wage increase because no one can afford it,” McDermed told the Will County Gazette. “At the very least, we were hoping that he would regionalize it. No one can understand why the governor seems to think the rules of economics don’t apply to Illinois.”

McDermed said that to say she doesn’t know how much longer small businesses can survive what she sees as the governor’s ongoing assault on them.

“They’ve already been hit hard by the shutdown the governor imposed on them and now there’s this,” she said. “Not only is it going to delay our recovery it’s going to add more burden on small businesses at absolutely the worst time there can be for them.”

Despite all the state’s struggles, Pritzker has let it be known he has no intentions of delaying the minimum wage increase set to soon kick in.

As of July 1, the state’s minimum wage is set to climb to $10 an hour with another $1 increase set for Jan. 1 of 2021. By 2025, wages are slated to jump to at least $15 an hour.

“I would imagine the Governor is hoping none of this will cost Illinois to have the worse recovery from the pandemic of every other state,” McDermed added. “I don’t know how he can think it won’t, but I guess that would be his thought process.”

Making matters all the more frustrating is the fact McDermed said she can’t think of many reasons the governor has given for being so inflexible.

“All it’s been is argument you need to be made able to take support a family with whatever you earn,” she said. “The thing is we have to remember these are minimum wage jobs and we all know they were never intended to do that.”