Illinois Governor Signs Bill Raising the Statewide Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently approved a bill to incrementally raise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, reports the Littler . This makes Illinois the fifth state to pass a statewide minimum wage hike to that level, after California, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. SB 1 stipulates that the minimum wage will increase with a slate of hourly rate adjustments over the next five years to achieve the $15 hourly rate. For workers at least 18 years old, hourly rates will rise from $8.25 to $9.25 per hour, starting Jan. 1, 2020. Six months later, the hourly minimum will climb to $10 per hour through the end of 2020. Afterwards, the minimum wage will go up by a dollar an hour on the first day of each year until it reaches $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2025. Included in the bill are tax credits to help smaller businesses counter higher wages, and businesses with 50 or fewer workers will be able to claim a tax credit corresponding to 25 percent of the increased cost of wages paid from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2020. This credit will then be phased out over the course of the scheduled wage increases, eventually falling to 5 percent of the increased cost of wages in 2025.