Illinois may have chosen a new direction with the election of Bruce Rauner as governor, but outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn and current legislators have a few more opportunities to pass legislation that could bring huge
changes to Illinois’ small employers.
Lawmakers will return to Springfield for veto session Dec. 2-4 and again for a few days in
January, before Rauner and a new legislature are sworn in. The last time there was a “lame duck” session of the legislature, lawmakers passed a 67% tax increase, so this is something we’re taking seriously.
Two issues are still on the front burner for NFIB:
First, the fight against raising a minimum-wage increase. Despite losing the election, Governor Quinn has vowed to pass a wage hike before he leaves office. This week, Senate Bill 68 was amended to raise the minimum
wage from $8.25 to $11 over three years. It’s expected the full Senate will vote on the bill the week of
Dec. 1, when lawmakers are back to Springfield.
NFIB opposes any effort to raise Illinois’ minimum wage
because it will hurt small businesses. Illinois is already one of the highest wages in the Midwest at $8.25,
putting us at a competitive disadvantage with all of our neighboring
states.
The other issue is SB 2758, which
mandates that employers with 25 or more workers set up an automatic individual retirement account for them. The mandate would include both full- and
part-time employees and would force employers to automatically deduct at least
3% from their employees’ paychecks. Workers would have to actively “opt out” if they don’t want to
participate.
This spring, SB 2758 passed the Senate but stalled
in the House after a vigorous lobbying effort by NFIB and a coalition
of business groups as well as the life insurance industry, agents and financial advisors
and the banking industry. We worked hard
to educate lawmakers on the many downsides of mandating this onto employers as
well as the intrusion into the private sector marketplace.
Please join NFIB in our fight against these two measures by
contacting your lawmakers and asking them to vote NO.
