CHICAGO – Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) is celebrating the July 1 increase to the state’s minimum wage, believing it will help working families navigate the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So many families are struggling right now,” Lightford said. “Though minimum wage workers may count themselves lucky to have jobs while a great deal are unemployed, they still deserve to make a living wage. This increase takes them closer to that goal.”
The state’s minimum wage increases to $10 per hour July 1, the second in a series of increases required by a law Lightford passed last year after many years of hard work. That law requires the wage to increase by $1 on Jan. 1 of each year going forward until it reaches $15 per hour in 2025.
Lightford also has pushed back against business leaders who have used the pandemic and its associated economic downturn to try to repeal or delay the law.
“Minimum-wage earners hadn’t seen a raise since 2010,” Lightford said. “While I understand and sympathize with struggling small businesses, we can’t ask these hard working women and men to wait for their pay to go up. They’ve been waiting too long already.”
Lightford’s law controls the statewide minimum wage. Some communities, including Cook County and Chicago, have set higher local minimum wages, a move Lightford commends.
CHICAGO – To better inform policymakers on the root causes of poverty and economic insecurity, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) was appointed to the Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security.
“I believe we have come to the precipice of a moment that can make the changes necessary to put us on track to eliminate poverty across Illinois,” Lightford said. “That effort starts with getting to the root causes of poverty, a major one being systemic racism, and no longer being shy about the way we approach them.”
The commission will consist of four members of the General Assembly, a member of the judicial branch and 20 members of the public, including people who have experienced deep poverty and advocates for youth, veterans, mental health, education equity, those experiencing homelessness, those differently abled and others.
“I look forward to the important work we’ll be doing through this commission, and even more to engaging my colleagues in a conversation that can create generational change, eliminate poverty and economic disparities across our state,” Lightford said.
The commission is tasked with educating policymakers on the impact poverty has on other measures of economic stability and economic outcomes, including educational attainment, rates of incarceration, lifetime earnings, access to health care, health care outcomes, and access to housing. The Department of Human Services will provide support for the commission to complete its work to produce a strategic plan that addresses poverty and economic insecurity in Illinois by November 30, 2021.
BROADVIEW—Communities in the West Suburbs came together on Juneteenth to celebrate both the end of slavery and to continue the fight for justice, equality and police accountability.
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) was joined by West Suburban Mayors Katrina Thompson, Andre Harvey, Edwenna Perkins, Rory Hoskins and other elected officials on Friday for a Juneteenth Police Accountability Protest.
Lightford not only wanted to shine a light on Juneteenth, Freedom Day for slaves in America, but she also calls for police accountability after seeing Chicago police officers sleeping on the job in Congressman Bobby Rush’s office on the South Side of Chicago.
“I know Juneteenth is supposed to be a celebration, but we are in the midst of a movement, so we have to address excessive force and the many other injustices,” Lightford said. “It is so unfortunate that Juneteenth and the vast majority of Black history is not being taught in our classrooms. We have to, as a people, celebrate our people, because no one else is celebrating us, but us.”
CHICAGO — Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) joined Governor JB Pritzker and other members of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucuses of the state legislature and small business owners to announce a package of state grant programs to support communities and businesses impacted by the pandemic and recent civil unrest.
“Black communities are the hardest hit by COVID-19. Another symptom of the disease that is racism in our country; working families who have yet to receive a proper payday have struggled, they've struggled to maintain. During this time, our small business built in our local communities by the people who care about them. Most were forced to shut down, and were damaged by individuals who totally exploited our pain for personal gain,” Lightford said. "They need a government that will work for them without hesitation. And when we left Springfield after passing a balanced budget, this is the word that we fought for; for Black and Latino communities who deserve nothing less than reassurance that we are going to make them whole. And then we are going to make them grow. “
The package includes more than $900 million across more than ten programs and four state agencies to help working families and small businesses who have been hit the hardest by COVID-19’s economic impacts, which was compounded by recent property damage and civil unrest.
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