GRANT PARK — As of July 1, Chicago’s minimum wage — for most workers — is $15.80 an hour.
But tipped workers across the city are still paid a “subminimum wage,” a base wage between $8-$10 an hour that’s complemented by on-the-job tips.
Now, advocacy groups are joining with service workers and city officials to call for legislation that would end the so-called subminimum wage and guarantee that workers citywide are paid the same hourly rate of $15.80, with any tips paid out on top.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, Alds. Jessie Fuentes (26th) and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) on Thursday night briefly joined the waitstaff at the Loop’s Hilton Chicago hotel in a show of solidarity with tipped workers.
The “Server for an Hour” event was organized by workers’ advocacy group One Fair Wage as a part of the progressive political conference Netroots Nation.
Ramirez-Rosa told Block Club Thursday he is leading the effort with Fuentes to introduce legislation at City Council that would abolish the subminimum wage.
“It’s not a question of if but how we’re going to get one fair wage,” Ramirez-Rosa said.
Ramirez-Rosa, Johnson’s floor leader, said he hopes to introduce the legislation soon and that he is “working collaboratively with all stakeholders,” including the Illinois Restaurant Association.
In a keynote address at the Netroots Nation conference, Johnson reaffirmed his campaign pledge to do away with the subminimum wage.
“Because of subminimum wages, many of our young people are working full time and still find themselves living in poverty. People are working hard every single day, [and] they cannot afford to live in the very city in which they work,” Johnson said.
Barring high unemployment, Chicago’s minimum wage ticks up every July 1. This month’s increase brought that rate to $15.80 per hour for most employees. Small business employees, defined as employees of a business with between four and 20 workers, earn a slightly lower minimum wage of $15 an hour. Employees under the age of 18 have a minimum wage of $13.50.
Minimum wages work differently for Chicago’s tipped workers such as restaurant servers. Employers are allowed to pay tipped workers a minimum wage more than two-thirds lower than their untipped counterparts. That’s $9.48 for large business employees, $9 for small business employees and $8.10 for young workers.
Advocacy groups like One Fair Wage call these lower rates of pay “subminimum wages.”
If a tipped worker’s total earnings — wages plus tips — do not add up to at least the minimum wage, employers are required to pay the difference. That means no tipped worker can legally walk out the door with total earnings less than the minimum wage rate for their work.
In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that servers in the Chicago area made an average hourly wage of $15.52, including reported tips.
For months, Chicago restaurants have been struggling to maintain staff. The pandemic drove thousands of skilled workers into other industries, restaurateurs told Block Club last summer.
This spring, the food service industry had the highest quit rate for any American industry, statistics show.
One Fair Wage said in a report released in June that ending the subminimum wage would alleviate what it calls a “self-made staffing crisis” in the food service industry. It would also boost youth employment, according to the report.
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