Minimum wage in Illinois is set to increase another $1/hour again come Jan. 1, 2021.
This will be the third increase since Jan. 1, 2020 when the minimum wage moved from $8.25/hour to $9.25/hour. On July 1, 2020, the minimum wage moved to $10/hour.
Annual $1/hour increases until 2025 will bring minimum wage in Illinois will be $15/hour.
Tipped employees may be paid 60% of the hourly minimum wage.
Workers under the age of 18 and working fewer than 650 hours in a year will earn a wage of $8.50 in 2021. The youth minimum wage rate will increase to $13 an hour by 2025.
Prior to 2020 it had been a decade since minimum wage was increased.
“We want people who are working at the lowest wages in our economy, the poorest working people in Illinois, we think that they deserve a raise,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday.
Michael Kleinik, director of the Illinois Department of Labor expects employers to make the change for their employees, but also wants them to be made aware of the increase.
“We want to make sure that workers earning minimum wage are aware that the $1 increase should be reflected in their pay checks for any time they work after the first of the year,” Kleinik said.
A recent study by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute at the University of Illinois, says more than 1.4 million adult hourly workers in Illinois make less than $15 per hour.
