Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Now that Illinois has a minimum wage of $15 an hour, Gov. JB Pritzker doesn’t want it to stop.

“This really has really been about lifting people out of poverty,” Pritzker said at an event in Springfield Thursday. “$8.25, just like the federal minimum wage of $7.25, you can’t live on one full-time job at $8.25, you have to hold down two. And even if you have two, and even if you have two, that’s barely enough, really, to take care of yourself, certainly not a whole family.”

Just as the minimum wage escalated over some years to the present $15 an hour, a bill would keep the increases going until it reached $27 in 2032. But business groups are opposed.

“We were very conscious of the potential impact on businesses,” said Pritzker, “and so we provided a tax credit for the small businesses in particular, that were going to pay the increased minimum wage, and we did it carefully over the course of about 5 1/2 years.”