The bill in favor of increasing the state minimum wage that state Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) and 18 other Illinois House Representatives voted for will have a tremendous impact on the state's manufacturing industry, according to one small business owner.
Andrew Libman, president of the Libman Company in Douglas County, joined House Republicans for a press conference at the Capitol Building in Springfield on May 20 and gave a demonstrative speech on how the increase in minimum wage will hurt his Illinois-based manufacturing company. Sixty percent of Libman Company's labor hours fall under the minimum-wage bracket, he said in the press conference, and the company is set to lose millions in cost due to the increase.
Libman insists that it will be significantly more difficult to remain competitive in the manufacturing industry because equipment and building costs are already extremely high. The new minimum wage and a progressive income tax will only add to those difficulties.
Company founder William Libman
| https://libman.com
"That jump from $11 to $15 and how difficult that would be for us as a company to absorb that," Libman said at the press conference.
Libman Company has been based in Illinois since 1896 and Libman noted it would be much better off now if the company moved to another state such as Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin, where legislation policies would not have such an impact on his business.
"I've been doing this for 25 years and never spent any time looking at other states, but when the minimum wage came, I looked at what this was going to cost the company and it was a real eye opener for me," he said at the press conference.
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