Raising the minimum

Sandy Bressner –  sbressner@kcchronicle.com Maggie Priore of St. Charles urges Moriah Howard, 3, into to get into the water as Jahday Williams, 4, looks on and instructor Shannon Boi works with Joshua McGill, 4, during a swim lesson at Potawatomi Park in St. Charles Thursday. Boi and Priore, both first year swim instructors, currently make minimum wage, which has been increased by 25 cents per hour.

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Maggie Priore is looking forward to her next paycheck. As she sees it, who wouldn’t be happy to receive more money for the same amount of work?

“I’m happy just to have a job this summer, with so many others having such a hard time finding work,” said Priore, a senior at St. Charles East High School who is working as a part-time swim instructor at Swanson Pool at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles.

“But I am still absolutely thrilled that I’ll be making more.”

This week, Priore and all others in Illinois who work at jobs at which they earn the state-mandated minimum wage have received a raise.

On July 1, the minimum wage in Illinois increased by 25 cents an hour, jumping from $7.75 an hour to $8 an hour. That would translate into an additional $520 earned each year by full-time workers earning minimum wage.

The increase this month would place the state’s minimum wage 75 cents an hour more than the national minimum wage, which is set to increase to $7.25 an hour this month.

The minimum wage is scheduled to increase in Illinois again in July 2010 by another 25 cents an hour to $8.25.

For workers like Priore, who works about 16 hours a week at the St. Charles pool and a few hours more at a local dance studio, the increase means a few more dollars each paycheck to go towards her tuition at the dance school and to be saved for college.

But for those paying the wage, the increase means another piece of their operating margin disappears.

Bill Conner, business manager for the St. Charles Park District, which operates Swanson Pool, said district policy requires that, when the minimum wage goes up, all employees at the pool also receive the same increase.

So, while first-year employees like Priore will receive the increase, all others working at the pool who earn more than minimum wage will also get a raise, Conner said.

While that amount does not put the park district in a bind, it does place the financial viability of the public pool each summer more in the hands of weather. Should cool, wet weather dominate early in the summer, as it did this year, it means the district will sell fewer season passes.

“People look at it and say, ‘It’s July now. Why should I buy a pool pass?’ “ Conner said. “But we still have to pay our costs to keep the pool open.”

Those who run private businesses in the Tri-Cities said the increase has forced them to revamp their budgets to compensate.

At Eaglebrook Country Club in Geneva, General Manager Bill Crouse said he recognized the coming increase early on.

“Most people who work here are already above that [minimum wage] when they start,” Crouse said. “But we still needed to start to tier up [pay scales] at the beginning of the year and to budget for this.”

Bruno Hiltgart, director of operations and marketing for Gill Management, operates eight Burger King restaurants, including locations in Batavia, St. Charles and South Elgin, employing 200 workers, including a little less than 100 who earn minimum wage.

He said increases in the minimum wage through the years have caused more and more of his employees to fall into the category of minimum wage earners.

It has also caused Gill Management to find ways to run their restaurants with fewer workers to maintain their profit margin.

“It puts more pressure on everyone to be more productive, to get more out of the hours they do work, to make this successful,” Hiltgart said.

Additionally, he said increases in minimum wage cause businesses like his to find ways to pass on some of the cost to the consumer – including to others earning minimum wage.

“So, yes, their wage goes up, but their buying power is not any better than what it was before,” Hiltgart said. “The way I see it is the only people who win in this is the government, who gets more in taxes.”