CHICAGO -- On Monday, Illinois Gov. Blagojevich signed legislation that increases the state’s $6.50 an hour minimum wage to $7.50 an hour in July and by a quarter an hour in each of the next three years. Gov. Blagojevich also promised to push through a permanent cost-of-living increase over the objections of Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

The cornerstone of the governor’s re-election campaign, the bill also raises the minimum wage to $8.25 an hour by July 2010. “Men and women working hard to keep our economy moving shouldn't be held hostage by political whims and the changes in politics. They ought to have a built-in cost-of-living increase just like most of us enjoy,” the governor told supporters on Monday. "We're going to go back in January and try to encourage the Democrats in the House to encourage their Democratic leader to ... fight and work for working people and not for the different special interests who are trying to block a cost-of-living increase."

The three-year increase was a “compromise,” Madigan's spokesman Steve Brown said. “The wisest thing to do would be to see how that all works out before you go making any changes,” Brown told the newspaper.