By Daniel Nardini
Over the past five years, I have been seeing a surge of cars with license plates from Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kentucky well inside Illinois. What it means is that people from surrounding states are coming to Illinois for two reasons—Illinois’ minimum wages and the the growing availability of jobs (especially good paying jobs). The bottom line is that people want to make good money, and they want jobs. One thing that current Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has accomplished is not only stabilizing Illinois’ finances but also encouraging corporations and small businesses to build factories and shops in this state. Before Pritzker, Illinois was far from being a stable state. Its finances were far from organized, and the state was bleeding out not only jobs but people as well.
I remember the 2000’s and 2010’s whereby people I knew were moving out for jobs and more prosperity in the surrounding states. It got to the point where I wondered if the state itself would survive as a state. Things got so bad when former Governor Bruce Rauner virtually held the Illinois’ fiscal budget negotiations hostage. State programs were not funded, private organizations that depended on state funding had dried up, and the state economy virtually crashed. The number of people who were trying to move out of Illinois started to turn into a flood. Illinois had become the state that was not only one of the least desirable state to live in but probably the least desirable state to live in.
How very different compared to what I am seeing now. One of the best decisions the Illinois state government made was to raise the hourly minimum wage. Now it stands at $15.00. With the exception of Missouri and Michigan (Missouri’s minimum wage is $13.75 and Michigan’s is $12.48), the hourly minimum wage for the surrounding states to Illinois is the federally mandated $7.25. These states follow the federally mandated minimum wage which has not changed since 2009. This is a joke, and it means that not only is it not possible to make a decent living on this wage, but that few people would want to work for this low a rate. This means that businesses do not want to be in states where people are unwilling to work for such a low amount of money.
More than that, Pritzker has worked hard to encourage high-tech jobs to come to Illinois which in of itself is a game changer. Such jobs bring higher wages, and with it the chance to put money into the state economy. Finally, the higher wages and better paying jobs is now attracting people from not only the surrounding states but also from far away states like Ohio, Florida and Texas to make Illinois their home (I know as I have been seeing a lot of license plates from these states as well). Illinois has now become a more welcoming state than I can remember at the beginning of the 21st Century.
It means that Illinois is an island of stability in a very rough and dark sea of both economic and social instability under current U.S. President Donald Trump. To the chagrin of many people in the surrounding Republican-run states, poverty has grown and job opportunities have dwindled. Going through both Indiana and Iowa, I can see the difference in the low quality of living in these two states compared to Illinois. This is the consequence of following Trump’s policies. Because of this, people from these Republican-run states are voting with their feet to come to Illinois. At this point I am more than satisfied that I am living in Illinois.
Illinois—One of the Best States in the Midwest
By Daniel Nardini
I remember the 2000’s and 2010’s whereby people I knew were moving out for jobs and more prosperity in the surrounding states. It got to the point where I wondered if the state itself would survive as a state. Things got so bad when former Governor Bruce Rauner virtually held the Illinois’ fiscal budget negotiations hostage. State programs were not funded, private organizations that depended on state funding had dried up, and the state economy virtually crashed. The number of people who were trying to move out of Illinois started to turn into a flood. Illinois had become the state that was not only one of the least desirable state to live in but probably the least desirable state to live in.
How very different compared to what I am seeing now. One of the best decisions the Illinois state government made was to raise the hourly minimum wage. Now it stands at $15.00. With the exception of Missouri and Michigan (Missouri’s minimum wage is $13.75 and Michigan’s is $12.48), the hourly minimum wage for the surrounding states to Illinois is the federally mandated $7.25. These states follow the federally mandated minimum wage which has not changed since 2009. This is a joke, and it means that not only is it not possible to make a decent living on this wage, but that few people would want to work for this low a rate. This means that businesses do not want to be in states where people are unwilling to work for such a low amount of money.
More than that, Pritzker has worked hard to encourage high-tech jobs to come to Illinois which in of itself is a game changer. Such jobs bring higher wages, and with it the chance to put money into the state economy. Finally, the higher wages and better paying jobs is now attracting people from not only the surrounding states but also from far away states like Ohio, Florida and Texas to make Illinois their home (I know as I have been seeing a lot of license plates from these states as well). Illinois has now become a more welcoming state than I can remember at the beginning of the 21st Century.
It means that Illinois is an island of stability in a very rough and dark sea of both economic and social instability under current U.S. President Donald Trump. To the chagrin of many people in the surrounding Republican-run states, poverty has grown and job opportunities have dwindled. Going through both Indiana and Iowa, I can see the difference in the low quality of living in these two states compared to Illinois. This is the consequence of following Trump’s policies. Because of this, people from these Republican-run states are voting with their feet to come to Illinois. At this point I am more than satisfied that I am living in Illinois.