The Aurora Beacon-News - Durbin, Foster, Weisner Push for Minimum Wage Hike

News Article

By Steve Lord

Several Democratic heavyweights came to Aurora to put their heft behind raising the minimum wage Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, both in the midst of re-election campaigns, met the press at Foster's office on Aurora's West Side to push for a national minimum wage hike to $10 an hour.

Joining them was Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, himself a long-time Democratic Party member.

"Many of us believe if you get up every day, get dressed and go to work, you should make a decent wage," Durbin said. "We've got to move it up to $10 an hour."

Foster said when he was in college in the 1970s, a summer minimum wage job would pay for tuition.

"It shows how far off the tracks we've gotten," he said. "Every if you aren't yourself in a minimum wage job, you know someone who is. So much of our economy depends on a healthy middle class."

To illustrate the point, two people currently working minimum wage jobs spoke to the press, too, saying a small hike in the minimum wage would make a big difference in their situations.

Jesse Garner, of Aurora, a student at Waubonsee Community College, said "even up to $10 would give a little more to me" to put toward the gas to drive between Aurora and Sugar Grove twice a week.

"With this minimum wage hike, it would be a tremendous help to me to figure things out," he said.

The situation is markedly different for Donna Dyxin, of Joliet, who once held a high-paying information technology job. She was laid off, as was her husband, from his job in the armored car business. Their house has been in no-default foreclosure for six years, and they have medical bills to handle.

"We have tried many ways to make ends meet," said Dyxin, who works a minimum wage retail job of $8.46 an hour. "I work as many hours as they will give me. We live day to day, because we don't know what the future will bring, we don't even know if we will have a house to live in."

When the two finished speaking, Durbin said they "told the whole story better than anyone else could."

Weisner invoked the words of Abraham Lincoln, who decried the idea that someone would work the fields, harvest the crops, but bring the fruits of their labor to someone else.

"Any democracy recognizes the inherent dignity of work," he said.

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