http://qui.live.mediaspanonlinen.com/rss/ Quincy Herald Whig en-us IN 2006, when the Illinois economy was expanding at a moderate pace, lawmakers approved a series of annual increases in the minimum wage, then at $6.50 per hour. That figure rose to $7.50 in July 2007, to $7.75 in July 2008, to $8 last week and will rise to $8.25 in 2010. The result is a 27-percent increase over four years that will boost the earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker from $13,520 in 2006 to $17,160 in 2010. No one foresaw, however, that this wage-hike spiral would be occurring during the most serious global economic downturn since the 1940s. http://qui.live.mediaspanonline.com/new_story/Sunday-editorial2009-07-04T22-03-26