Tying minimum-wage increases to inflation.

And public pensions, unlike Social Security, are locked in at 3%.

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In 2019 my state Democratic Party state rep Will Guzzardi sponsored a bill that will incrementally increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 on hour by 2025.

2025 is still over two years away and the reality of labor shortages and 10% inflation have lapped the demand for $15 an hour and most certainly flew by Guzzardi’s law.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that 12 states and the District of Columbia have policies that index their state’s minimum wage based on inflation. Needless to say, Illinois is not on the list of 12.

The annual 3% compounded raise in our pensions is a total arbitrary number that only incidentally has kept pace with inflation over the past two decades.

It no longer is keeping pace.

I’ve been arguing that our teacher pension should have a floor and a ceiling that is tethered to changes in the cost of living.

It was never accurate to call our yearly increase in pensions a cost of living increase. It is more truthful to say it is a retirement benefit which has nothing to do with the cost of living.

As for the federal minimum wage, it has remained at $7.25 an hour for the past fifteen years.

Since then, its purchasing power has declined by 27%.

In 1956 thirty states, Washington D.C., and dozens of local governments introduced their own minimum wages that are higher than the federal minimum wage.

But workers in Illinois face a problem. If the state doesn’t raise its minimum wage on a regular basis, the real value of it declines. 

The same goes for the situation with retired state workers and public school teachers whose pension has lost so much of its value this year.

Fortunately gas prices seem to be declining and perhaps inflation has stalled.

But low-wage workers still need stronger labor standards in order to make ends meet. No way can a worker making $15 an hour earn enough to meet the their family budget.

Let along waiting for 2025.

The Economic Policy Institute believes a living minimum wage should be a federal law. So do I.

But meanwhile Illinois and Chicago need to step up since the feds won’t