SPRINGFIELD - Tonya Creek has worked at the same Decatur dry cleaner for five years, but she owes her recent raise to an upcoming state-mandated increase in the minimum wage.

"There's no way I could survive on $6.50 an hour," she said.

Creek's boss bumped her pay to $7.50 per hour a couple weeks in advance of that rate becoming the state's minimum wage as of July 1.

But she faces problems many low-wage earners do in saying an extra dollar per hour will only go so far as gas prices remain unstable and electric bills rose at the beginning of the year.

"The cost of living is going up, too," Creek said.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and lawmakers approved the $1 raise last year, as well as plans to raise the minimum by a quarter every July until 2010 when it reaches $8.25 an hour.

In touting the plan, Blagojevich said full-time, minimum wage earners would earn $17,160 annually in 2010, compared to $13,520 now.

But business groups who often rally against wage increases say that statistic is misleading. They say many people earning the state's minimum aren't supporting themselves on just that money.

Kim Maisch, Illinois director of the National Federation of Independent Business, says 80 percent of Illinois' minimum wage workers are either teenagers working fast food or grocery jobs after school, or part of a family where another earner also brings income into the household.

She says the free market forces should set wages.

"We look at the market to determine a lot of things," Maisch said. "And wages is one of them."

How the wage hike will affect individual businesses depends on many factors, including how willing the company is to make its customers pay for the increased cost.

Vada Wond, owner of Decatur Florist, says that if employment costs rise, she just has to charge more for her flowers. She says the situation is similar to how delivery charges have risen along with the cost of gas during her 25 years owning the business.

"You've got to increase something else to cover that cost," Wond said.

That could even mean tuition prices for college students.

Illinois State University in Normal, for example, hires thousands of student workers at minimum wage to staff its dining centers and computer labs, among other jobs.

"A lot of our students survive on those salaries," said Vice President for Human Resources Ira Schoenwald.

He said the July 1 wage increase and the $660,000 more it'll cost ISU next year has already been planned for.

Schoenwald says that increased cost is part of the reason tuition rose again this year because the money has to come from somewhere.

And while the Illinois wage is set to jump to $7.50 soon, the federal minimum wage will rise from $5.15 to $5.85 near the end of July.

Some of Illinois' neighboring states have higher minimum wages than the federal government requires. But none come will come within even $1 of Illinois once it goes up July 1.

That leaves state Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, worried that businesses could cross the Mississippi River for Iowa and labor that will work for $6.20 an hour.

He says that when he voted for Illinois' hike, he thought the federal government would soon match it, creating an even playing field.

"We were sold on the idea that the federal government was going to increase the minimum wage," Jacobs said.

Congress did, but just to $5.85. So if Jacobs' area loses jobs over Illinois' decision, he may have second thoughts about his vote last year.

"I hate to begrudge anybody an income," he said. "If in fact other states don't follow suit, yeah, I will regret it a little bit."

mike.riopell@lee.net (217) 789-0865