Skip to main content

Chicago’s Mayor Proposes Quicker Minimum Wage Hike For Many, But Not All, Workers


Last week, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, announced her proposal for hourly workers in the city to earn $15/hour by 2021, four years sooner than the rest of the state.  However, this proposal would only see tipped workers in the city earning 60% of that.

Many readers are likely wondering what the specifics are of the Mayor’s proposal.  Let us take a closer look:


  • Chicago’s $13/hour minimum wage rate would rise to $14/hour on July 1, 2020 and then again to $15/hour in 2021. 
  • Further wage hikes would be guaranteed and tied to the consumer price index.  However, further wage hikes would be capped at 2.5%. 
  • Hourly workers under the age of 18 would be able to obtain a $15/hour wage more gradually, eventually reaching that wage rate by 2024. 
  • By 2025, the city would abolish the minimum wage exemption for teen workers. 
  • Employers with 20 or fewer employees would be given more time to raise their hourly pay rates, eventually reaching $15/hour by 2023.
  • Employers with 4 or fewer employees would be exempt. 

Some might wonder why the Mayor’s proposal would only minimally impact tipped workers.  The Mayor indicated these tipped workers were for the large part excluded from her proposal, out of concern for how it would impact small businesses.

Many Chicago politicians expressed concern over the fact that tipped workers would not benefit from this proposal, namely because poverty apparently plagues many tipped workers in the city.  (Only allowing these hourly workers to realize a 60% benefit of the proposal would therefore do little to help poverty rates in the city.)  While I do not think the Mayor’s proposal will ultimately be approved, I would expect this to be a stepping stone to helping hourly workers in the city see their wages increase before the rest of the state.  Whether tipped workers in the city can find their way into this, or another, proposal is likely the key thing to watch going forward.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more