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(Flickr/Judy Baxter)
The Chicago City Council approved a plan to gradually increase the city’s minimum wage to $13 an hour on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014 in a special meeting called by Mayor Emanuel.
Passed with a 44-5 vote, the new minimum wage will begin with an increase to $10 an hour by July 1, 2015, then 50-cent hikes in 2016 and 2017, followed by $1 increases in 2018 and 2019.
After 2019, the minimum wage rate will go up based on growth in the local consumer price index, or 2.5 percent, whichever is lower.
“It’s a first step on the road to give workers the dignity that they deserve,” Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) said in the City Council meeting Tuesday. “It keeps wages for those same workers, just pennies above the poverty line in 2019.”
The mayoral candidate closed his remarks by reaffirming his support to raise the wage to $15 by 2019 and said we should continue to work collectively to achieve that goal, brought to light by the Raise Chicago Coalition.
“I’m supporting this,” Ald. Daniel Solis (25th) said to his colleagues in the meeting. “400,000 people will be affected by this, 70,000 will be taken out of poverty. This is a no-brainer.”
Members of the Raise Chicago Coalition declared victory in a statement released just after the meeting adjourned but said they will continue to fight for an increase to $15.
“This victory was hard fought, and it is a testament to the value of our coalition’s advocacy and work to deliver real results for working families,” said Katelyn Johnson, executive director of Action Now.
Still other activists and low-wage workers take issue with the fact that the ordinance will only raise wages for tipped workers by a dollar, to $5.95.
“The Council’s ordinance also leaves tipped workers behind, to continue to struggle with poverty wages,” said Grassroots Illinois Action in a statement. “Chicago can do better. We will continue to organize and fight for a living wage for all Chicagoans.”
Other groups like the Latino Union of Chicago said that for the first time in state history, domestic workers such as nannies and housekeepers will receive minimum wage protection in the city of Chicago.
“This groundbreaking vote means that Chicago’s household workers will finally gain the same protections that most other workers have had for decades,” said Myrla Baldonado, a domestic worker and organizer at Latino Union of Chicago.
But business groups, including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Restaurant Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association have called Emanuel’s move political, with the Feb. 24 mayoral election less than three months away. They also claimed that the mayor’s push goes against his minimum wage task force’s recommendation that the City Council should not act on the issue before the General Assembly has a chance to do so.
“Mayor Emanuel’s unilateral decision to move ahead with City Council action to raise the minimum wage this week virtually eliminates the possibility for a uniform, fair statewide increase that puts workers, businesses and communities all on a level playing field,” the groups said in a statement.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are working to garner enough votes to pass a $10 an hour statewide minimum wage before the end of session this year.