Politics
City Council Reverses Vote to End Tipped Minimum Wage; Mayor Johnson Says He’ll Veto It
The Chicago City Council Wednesday voted 30-18 to reverse a 2023 vote to phase out the tipped minimum wage, one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s major legislative accomplishments.
All Chicago businesses should be required to pay their workers the same minimum hourly wage, regardless of whether they also earn tips, Johnson said. It would take 34 votes to override the mayor’s veto.
Johnson said the vote was “shameful” and called those who voted to stop tipped workers from being paid more “self-proclaimed Democrats” who were willing to see Black and Latino women paid less than a living wage.
Johnson said he was willing to use all of his power to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with working people, including issuing his third veto in less than a year.
“Then veto it is,” Johnson said after the City Council meeting.
The original measure approved by a 36-10 vote by City Council on Oct. 6, 2023, represented a compromise between Johnson and the Illinois Restaurant Association that gave restaurants five years to prepare for the end of the tipped minimum wage on July 1, 2028, while giving servers and other workers who earn gratuities annual 8% raises on July 1.
Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th Ward) said that vote was a victory for workers throughout Chicago.
“I know how humiliating it is to make $2.75 an hour,” Quezada said. “I know how humiliating it is to work 60 hours a week and not be able to pay your bills. I know how enraging it is and how humiliating it is for working class mothers, for predominantly Black, Brown and immigrants, to work so hard and not have enough to get by with the dignity they deserve.”
But Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward) said it was a mistake for Chicago to join Alaska, California, Guam, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. In June, Washington, D.C., leaders put their efforts to phase out the minimum wage on ice.
The proposal authored by Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th Ward), who voted for the 2023 measure that phased out the tipped minimum wage, would freeze the subminimum wage at 24% of the city’s $16.60 per hour minimum wage.
Tipped workers must now be paid $12.62 per hour by their employers, assuming tips account for at least another $3.98 per hour.
Restaurant industry groups and supporters of the measure to keep the tipped minimum wage on the books contend that the pay raises have cut into restaurants’ already thin margins, forcing them to cut jobs and shelve expansion plans.
“People are losing their jobs,” Illinois Restaurant Association president Sam Toia said during a City Hall news conference Wednesday morning. “Shifts are being eliminated.”
However, supporters of ending the tipped minimum wage said workers should not see their pay cut at a time when gas prices are soaring and rent increases happen annually.
Johnson has said ending the tipped minimum wage would protect workers who rely on tips because they are more vulnerable to sexual harassment, wage theft and abuse than other employees.
The 2023 vote was a major victory for Johnson, who vowed to end the tipped minimum wage during his campaign for mayor, calling it a vestige of slavery since most of those who rely on tips to earn a living wage are more likely to be Black and Latina women.
The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois is part of the national campaign to end the tipped minimum wage known as One Fair Wage.
There is no sign that the pace of restaurants closed at a higher rate after the City Council’s vote in 2023, city officials said, dismissing Toia’s concerns.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
