RESOLUTION AS AMENDED
WHEREAS, Congress has raised the federal minimum wage only two times in the last 20 years, most recently in 2009; and
WHEREAS, The value of the minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, has declined from its peak of $10.72 in 1968 to $7.25 today - a 33% decrease in spending power; and
WHEREAS, In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama expressed strong support for a bill pending in Congress that gradually raises the federal minimum wage over three years to $10.10 an hour and mandates automatic adjustments for inflation; and
WHEREAS, The White House estimates that, if enacted, the legislation would immediately boost the wages of about 15 million low-income workers; and
WHEREAS, According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 85,000 persons in Illinois, a large percentage of whom live and work in Chicago, hold minimum-wage jobs; and
WHEREAS, The majority of those who would benefit from a minimum wage increase are adult, full-time workers who are supporting their families in moderate- to low-income households; and
WHEREAS, Full-time minimum-wage workers in Illinois earn approximately $17,160 per year before taxes, which is barely above the poverty threshold for households of two people, and well below it for households of three or more; and
WHEREAS, The bulk of reputable research on the subject shows that raising the minimum wage has little or no adverse impact on employment and prices - to the contrary, according to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help the economy at large, because the increased spending power of workers would increase our nation's gross domestic product by about $33 billion and create approximately 140,000 jobs; and
WHEREAS, A 2012 poll by Lake Research shows that at least 73% of Americans favor an increase in the minimum wage, including 74% of independents and 50% of Republicans, crossing all demographic, regional, and political categor...
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