Illinois' Minimum Wage

As most people living in the state of Illinois knows, the minimum wage is $8.75 an hour, but why is it that a full time worker making minimum wage is considered to be living in poverty? A full time worker working forty hours a week at minimum wage will make around $18,000 a year and yet they will still be considered to be living in poverty and will struggle to pay for their basic needs. It's not right that someone can spend forty hours a week working and is still having a hard time to make enough money to pay their bills, especially in a state that has such a high cost of living. Therefore, the minimum wage in Illinois should be raised to help who's who have to work full time at a minimum wage job. If the minimum wage is raised to around ten dollars an hour, many full time workers would benefit from it. Also, in the long run, this could benefit the economy because minimum wage workers would have extra money to spend that could go back into the economy, which would help smaller businesses grow and prosper. There could be bad consequences from raising the minimum wage, but the pros could easily outweigh the cons and benefit the state. In the long run this could be a very good idea, and with all the good possibilities that could come from this, so why not raise the minimum wage in Illinois? This is a good idea but the state has yet to try it.