icago would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour and tie future increases to the cost of living under a plan introduced Wednesday to solve the growing problem of income inequality and the crime that comes with it.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has given 17 business, labor, and political leaders 45 days to draft a plan for a Chicago-only minimum wage ordinance.
But City Council allies of Raise Chicago, a coalition of community and labor organizations, are not about to wait—nor are they willing to put the issue in the hands of a mayoral panel that may not go high enough to lift Chicago’s working poor out of poverty.
At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, they turned up the political heat on Emanuel by introducing an ordinance that would phase in a requirement that Chicago businesses pay their employees $15 an hour.
The length of the runway would vary with the size of the company.
Companies with more than $50 million in annual revenue would be required to pay $12.50 an hour within 90 days of passage and $15 an hour within a year.
Small- and medium-sized companies would have 15 months to get to $12 an hour, two years to pay $13 an hour, three years to reach $14 an hour and four years to get to $15 an hour. After that, Chicago’s minimum wage would rise annually to match the inflation rate.
For waitresses and other employees who rely on tips, the minimum wage would be 70 percent of the full minimum wage.
The minimum wage currently stands at $7.25 an hour at the federal level and $8.25 in Illinois.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has given 17 business, labor, and political leaders 45 days to draft a plan for a Chicago-only minimum wage ordinance.
But City Council allies of Raise Chicago, a coalition of community and labor organizations, are not about to wait—nor are they willing to put the issue in the hands of a mayoral panel that may not go high enough to lift Chicago’s working poor out of poverty.
At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, they turned up the political heat on Emanuel by introducing an ordinance that would phase in a requirement that Chicago businesses pay their employees $15 an hour.
The length of the runway would vary with the size of the company.
Companies with more than $50 million in annual revenue would be required to pay $12.50 an hour within 90 days of passage and $15 an hour within a year.
Small- and medium-sized companies would have 15 months to get to $12 an hour, two years to pay $13 an hour, three years to reach $14 an hour and four years to get to $15 an hour. After that, Chicago’s minimum wage would rise annually to match the inflation rate.
For waitresses and other employees who rely on tips, the minimum wage would be 70 percent of the full minimum wage.
The minimum wage currently stands at $7.25 an hour at the federal level and $8.25 in Illinois.
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