Starting Jan. 1, minimum wage might increase to $5.50.

Another dollar increment is slated for January 2005.

The increase is part of the Illinois Senate’s attempt to raise the minimum wage to $6.50. Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn’t approved the bill yet.

The bill will increase the minimum wage rate incrementally over the next year and a half, from $5.15 to $6.50, a 26.2 percent increase.

Under restrictions of the bill, workers under the age of 18 will have a minimum wage rate of $6.

NIU has 3,500 to 3,800 student employees during the regular school year and about 2,000 during the summer semester.

“We’ve been able to fairly calculate exactly what the new cost would be based on current applications,” said Steve Cunningham, associate vice president of enterprise planing and human resources. “The shift to $6.50 will result in an additional $2.3 million of cost. For some students, the percentage increase from $5.15 to $6.50 in terms of wages will definitely affect them and result in a significant new expense for the university.”

The minimum wage increase will not affect all employees. Workers who receive tips, such as waiters and waitresses, will not see wage increases. Many restaurant lobbyists pushed for this measure to be part of the bill.

Most jobs available to students on campus are paid at a wage rate. But the effect this increase will have on local businesses could have a negative effect on the availability of employment.

“The increase means you have to look seriously at the number of employees that you have,” said Lee Blankenship, owner of the Village Commons Bookstore. “It’s a factor that falls into your bottom line. Two things have to happen to keep profitability up, assuming that you do not see a large increase in sales; you have to cut employees or increase prices.”

With the ever-growing cost of merchandise, businesses like the VCB are finding it hard to raise prices more than they already have.

Matt Clark, store manager of Burger King, 913 W. Lincoln Highway, said the restaurant probably will hike up prices soon to respond to the minimum wage increase.

“We probably won’t lay off any workers, but we just won’t hire anybody else,” Clark said. “Some people will lose their hours.”

Raising prices will hurt sales that already have a negative effect on employment opportunities.

“Not that I’m against raising the minimum wage, but [the Illinois Senate] waited so long that the minimum wage is not increasing as much as inflation or sales,” Blankenship said.

This would not be a problem if the wage and inflation rates increased at a similar pace, he said. The bill tries to help the situation that businesses are facing by easing them into the increase by splitting it over two years.