Restaurant workers and their City Council allies on Wednesday revved up their so-called “One Fair Wage” campaign emboldened by a new mayor who has vowed to eliminate the “sub-minimum wage” for tipped workers.
Four years ago, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot threw a bone to progressives disappointed by her proposed 2020 budget by promising to raise Chicago’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021 — four years faster than the state.
But she maintained the “sub-minimum wage” for tipped workers, arguing that paying them the $15-an-hour would have a devastating impact on the restaurant industry — and that even some of the waiters and servers themselves didn’t want it.
As a result, Chicago’s tipped workers currently receive an hourly wage of $9 that will rise to $9.48 on July 1. That’s compared to a minimum wage of $15-an-hour that will soon rise to $15.80-an-hour.
Mayor Brandon Johnson campaigned on a promise to eliminate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers that critics call a “direct legacy of slavery” that has disproportionately impacted African Americans in general and black women in particular.
The only question is how long Johnson will give the restaurant industry to phase in the higher wage.
“Most places have given it five years. Some people want it sooner. So, it’s just figuring out what that timeline looks like,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Johnson’s City Council floor leader, said Wednesday.
While those negotiations go on behind the scenes, a public relations campaign was launched in earnest in front of the curtain.
Restaurant workers and their advocates held a news conference before Wednesday’s City Council meeting flanked by nearly a dozen alderpersons friendly to their cause.
They argued that, if Chicago is serious about reducing the violent crime and about achieving Johnson’s goal of doubling year-round youth employment, the key is to pay restaurant workers an hourly wage that can sustain them and their families.
“There are over 12,000 youth who have been identified as couch-surfing, being unhoused and people doubled- or tripled-up in houses. We can make the difference by ensuring that we keep young people employed but, more importantly, that we pay those young people fair wages,” said Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th).
“They can contribute to the financial viability of their household. They can assist their parents in ensuring that their families can live well…This is the solution not only to sustainability in houses, but preventing violence in our community.”
For Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th), the fight to eliminate the sub-minimum wages is deeply personal. It’s born from a family tragedy.
“This is important to me because this is the solution to youth violence that we see in the streets. My brother who was 19 years old and was killed. And he started working in a restaurant. That was his first opportunity,” Ramirez said.
“I’m here for One Fair Wage for my brother and for all of the other young people so they can live long an prosperous lives.”
The alderpersons were joined by restaurant owners among the 200 in Illinois who have already made the transition to “one fair wage” for all of their employees.
“We’re not doing it for altruistic purposes. We’re doing it because it makes business sense. When people know that you pay and you treat your employees better, they support your business,” said Jesse Iniguez, owners of Back of the Yards Coffee.
“And not only that, our employees are gonna be supporting other businesses because, when you put money in the pockets of people who actually spend it, they support businesses like ours.”
Aminah Ahmad, a graduate of Lane Tech High School, now attends the University of Michigan. She has worked at restaurants for the last three years.
“As much as I love my job, the wages are not enough to survive ... and a lot of my friends feel the same way,” she said.
Saru Jayaraman, director of the University of California at Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center, pointed to a new report that showed the restaurant industry is the largest employer of Chicago young people age 16 to 24.
Those young workers make up 28% of the restaurant workforce and 31% of restaurant employees who rely heavily on tips.
“While workers in the top fifth of Chicago’s restaurant industry earn on average over $55,000 a year, these jobs are held almost entirely by white men,” the new study shows.
“Youth of color are blocked rom obtaining these jobs due to racial and gender segregation in the industry.”
Four years ago, Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia argued that Lightfoot’s “pragmatic” plan to maintain the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers “balanced the needs of hard-working Chicagoans” struggling to make ends meet with “neighborhood businesses that drive our economy.”
Toia now says he is willing to negotiate a five-year phase-out of the sub-minimum wage.
