Illinois workers will continue to enjoy a higher minimum wage even after a recent refusal from the U.S. Senate to raise the federal minimum wage.

The bill would have increased minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next 26 months, but the Senate came up with only 46 of the 60 votes needed for approval.

“I believe that anyone who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year should not live in poverty in the richest country in the world,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass), the lead supporter of the proposal, to the Senate on March 7.

But the minimum wage is higher in Illinois at $6.50 an hour. Under the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services 2004 poverty guidelines, a full-time worker making minimum wage is not considered to be in the poverty level unless the worker is part of a three-person or larger family unit.

The Children’s Defense Fund estimated that about 1.8-million parent workers make at or near the federal minimum wage, according to a July 8 press release.

A single mother working full-time at the Illinois minimum wage would make $13,520 a year.

That is $1,030 more than $12,490 ,which is considered the poverty level.

But raising a child at this level of income can be tough, said Katie Mahne, the executive director of We Care Pregnancy Center, 403 N. Fifth St. That is why the center offers its services for free, she said.

“What we offer to folks in that situation is free services such as pregnancy tests, maternity clothes and other equipment that is donated to us,” Mahne said. “We offer programs to help moms be better moms and learn good parenting skills.”

Mahne said there are a lot of places for families in financial need to go to in DeKalb County, including Community Coordinated Child Care and the DeKalb County Health Department, which includes the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, food program.

State Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley) said it is unrealistic to assume people can live on minimum wage, even if it was $8 or $9 an hour. He said the state needs to look into providing better opportunities for work and advancement instead of just continually raising the minimum wage.

In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau found that 11.4 percent of the DeKalb County population was under the poverty level, compared with 10.7 percent in Illinois overall. Both were lower than the national average of 12.4 percent.

But the poverty rates are not a result of a low minimum wage level, Pritchard said.

“The whole issue of the minimum wage is very emotional,” Pritchard said. “People at minimum wage are beginning workers or temporary workers who will move up the ladder.”

It is important to establish a minimum wage that allows businesses to give beginning workers a chance to get work experience without causing the business to lose an extensive amount of money, Pritchard said.

“By raising [minimum wage], it shuts some people out of the job market,” he said. “Even [NIU] President [John] Peters has said that because the state increased minimum wage, the school would not be able to hire as many student workers.”

The bill to raise the state minimum wage passed in the House before Pritchard took office, he said.