CHICAGO — An effort to end the “subminimum” wage for tipped workers in Chicago was introduced to City Council with backing from Mayor Brandon Johnson and several alderpeople — although it was at least temporarily delayed Wednesday by a parliamentary maneuver.
Chicago’s minimum wage for most workers as of July 1 is $15.80 an hour. But tipped workers like restaurant servers across the city are paid a “subminimum wage,” a base pay that ranges from $9 an hour for employees at smaller companies to $9.48 for those at larger ones bolstered by on-the-job tips.
The ordinance introduced Wednesday would upend that system by guaranteeing workers citywide get the same hourly rate of $15.80, with any tips paid out on top.
If passed by City Council in its current form, the lower wage could be phased out over the next two years. Businesses would be required to meet the new pay requirements by July 1, 2025, according to the ordinance.
Supporters argue the current system “exposes tipped workers to disproportionate levels of poverty, financial uncertainty and harassment,” according to a copy of the ordinance reviewed by Block Club.
Organizers with One Fair Wage have been advocating to implement the higher hourly pay for service industry workers. Alderpeople and Johnson said Wednesday a change is needed to support service industry workers, many of whom are people of color or young people.
At a pre-Council press conference Wednesday Ald. Jesse Fuentes (26th) said the subminimum wage practice “is rooted in slave labor, white supremacy and racism.”
“We know that when our women are the front lines and they’re servicing for tips, that they are subject to sexual harassment. We know that when they’re putting their bodies and health at risk, they are subject to discrimination. We have a moral obligation to make our people whole,” she said.
But while the measure was formally introduced Wednesday, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) sent the ordinance to the Council’s rules committee, where legislation is typically deflected to hold it up or kill it entirely.
Fuentes and co-sponsor Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) said after the meeting they are confident the ordinance will pass through the Council this fall. The full City Council does not meet in August.
The proposal comes as Chicago restaurants have struggled to maintain staff since reopening after COVID-19 shutdowns. The pandemic drove thousands of skilled workers into other industries, restaurateurs told Block Club last summer.
In a statement posted to social media, Hospitality Business Association of Chicago director Pat Doerr sharply criticized the tipped wage ordinance, calling it “tone deaf.”
“Coming out of two years of sharply reduced business due to City Hall COVID mitigations, increased revenue pressures from sky high food delivery app fees, and climbing product costs and property tax bills it’s hard to imagine a more tone-deaf fast-tracked proposal from Chicago’s City Council,” the statement reads.
But Johnson, Fuentes and other alderpeople have vigorously defended the measure.
The mayor, Fuentes and Ramirez-Rosa donned aprons last week as part of a ““Server for an Hour” event organized by the group during the progressive political conference Netroots Nation.
“Because of subminimum wages, many of our young people are working full time and still find themselves living in poverty,” Johnson said during a keynote speech at the event. “People are working hard every single day, [and] they cannot afford to live in the very city in which they work.”
Block Club’s Noah Glasgow contributed.
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