New laws in Illinois typically take effect on January 1 and July 1, this year is no different as a host of new laws and tax increases go into effect this week.
Wage increases are coming for workers in Chicago. The city’s minimum wage will increase to $16.60 per hour for employers with four or more workers. The tipped minimum wage will also go up, to $12.62 per hour. The tipped workers’ minimum wage will continue to increase 8% each year until it reaches the city’s minimum wage for non-tipped workers in 2028.
Motorists will have more pain at the pump. The state gas tax will bump up slightly from $0.47 to $0.483 per gallon and from $0.545 to $0.558 for diesel fuel.
Smokers and vapers are in for higher prices as taxes on vapes, nicotine products, cigars and other tobacco products will increase from 15% to 45%. Cigarette taxes will go up a buck a pack.
Illinois residents will find no relief heading to Indiana, which is also raising its gas tax a penny and really bumping up the tax on cigarettes by $2 per pack. It’s the state’s first cigarette tax hike in 20 years.
Fans of those little bottles of shampoo and soaps they get at hotels will mostly be out of luck. A new law bans hotels with 50 or more rooms from providing those small, single-use bottles. Smaller hotels will have to follow suit next year. If you really want them, all you have to do is ask at the front desk. Hotels have started putting dispensers in the showers as a replacement.
The idea is to cut down on single-use plastics.
Are you an online sports gambler? Sportsbooks in Illinois will start charging 25 cents on the first 20 million online bets and then 50 cents on every bet after that. FanDuel and DraftKings have already said they will pass the fee on to bettors starting September 1.
I feel like I’m getting taxed to death! It’s too expensive to be alive anymore.