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Evanston business owners may find it easier to deal with the Cook County minimum wage increase after trustees in neighboring Skokie voted Thursday night to join Evanston in not opting out of the pay hike.

Unlike in Evanston, where the City Council and mayor all said Friday that they favored the pay hike after a crowd of residents turned out at an emergency meeting to support the increase, the Skokie trustees split on the issue with three voting to uphold the county ordinance and two plus the mayor voting to override it. One trustee was absent from Thursday’s meeting.

At the Skokie meeting, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, who sponsored the county’s wage hike ordinance, said he expects a lawsuit to be filed as early as today claiming that some of the roughly 75 towns that voted to override the ordinance lacked the power to do so because they’re not home rule communities.

The county ordinance increased the minimum wage from the statewide level of $8.25 to $10 effective July 1 and will provide additional $1 raises each year until it reaches $13 in 2020.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.

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2 Comments

  1. Wage hike

    right – cuz business is just booming in downtown Skokie – and we need more expensive salaries forced on small businesses. 

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