On Wednesday, Governor Pat Quinn delivered the annual Governor's State of the State address to a joint meeting of the Illinois House and Senate. Governor Quinn laid out his policy priorities for the 2014 legislative session that included a continued push of a proposal introduced in 2013 to raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour.
The Chamber opposes legislation to increase Illinois' minimum wage. Illinois currently has the highest minimum wage rate in the region and the sixth highest in the nation. Increasing the minimum wage now will hurt the state's competitive position with other states at a time when Illinois' unemployment rate is ranked 48th in the nation at 8.7 percent.
During the speech, the Governor also called for the creation of a Small Business Advocate to examine existing policies and proposals for their impact on the state's small businesses, reducing the LLC fee from $500 to $39, and mandating that employers provide all employees at least two earned sick days.