Prairie State Wire

Former Republican candidate for state treasurer Jim Dodge wishes the minimum wage increase that went into effect at the start of the year didn’t have to come at the expense of those who are now least able to shoulder it.

“I would say broadly the minimum wage increase on the whole makes some sense, but at the same time it couldn’t be coming at a worse time for the good of our small business owner,” Dodge told the Prairie State Wire. “Let’s get people the help that they need in these trying times, but it doesn’t make sense for it to be coming from small business owners that are already struggling to survive.”

Dodge is one of a growing number of state leaders willing to go on record about how they wish the $1 increase hiking the minimum wage to $11 per hour could be suspended.

“If people need more to provide for their families because of COVID, it should be the work of the federal government to make that happen,” added Dodge, noting that a recent survey already shows that 56% of all bar and restaurant owners across the state were unable to make full rent payments for their businesses during December. “To be doing this in the middle of a pandemic, the likes of which the world has never seen before, is really hard to imagine,” he said. “It says to me that the governor hasn’t thought through what it’s like to be a small business owner in these days and times. We’ve already got so many businesses struggling to survive and this action just opens up more of them to be on the list.”