A group of Chicago alderman called for action to raise minimum wage from $8.25 to $15 on Wednesday.

According to Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, the city of Chicago would be better off if residents earned more money and had more to spend. "It's not going to hurt business. It never has," said Moreno at a City Hall news conference prior to a council meeting, according to the Chicago Tribune. "It's only raised those at the lower end."

He was joined by supporters like Tanika Smith, a fast food worker who claims she struggles to make ends meet on her salary of $8.75 per hour. "My car note is $500 a month, my rent is about $500, food is going up, lights are going up," she said.

Advocates for an increase in minimum wage held the conference despite the fact that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a task force made up of aldermen and business leaders to study a minimum wage hike earlier this month. The task force will discuss the issue and then report back with recommendations to the mayor over the summer. It was created after 87 percent of voters in Chicago voiced support for a $15 minimum wage in a non-binding advisory referendum back in March.

The aldermen's proposal is seeking to hike the wage to $15 over two to five years, depending on the size of the employer.

Alderman Ricardo Munoz, a co-sponsor of the wage hike legislation, also argued that the increase would be a boost for both  workers and small businesses.

"When you give low and moderate wage earners a raise, they're not going to stash it in their mattress or invest it in the stock exchange. They're going to spend it at the local grocery story and the local shoe store," he said, reports Fortune.

It takes more than a $8.25 an hour job to get to that point. "We always go back to the question of what does it take to live in the city. If you look at the federal government's own definition, a family of four earning less than $18,000 is in poverty. We should at least set the minimum wage at a level to get people out of poverty," Munoz added.