Chicago's minimum wage resets to higher rate

Chicago, where advocacy group One Fair Wage estimates 100,000 tipped workers will be affected by the change, is the largest city in the U.S. to independently eliminate the subminimum wage. Los Angeles already prohibits the practice under California state law, Washington, D.C., has passed legislation to phase it out and a handful of other states — Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — also prohibit the practice.

Advocates for eliminating the tipped minimum wage argue the practice makes it difficult for servers and bartenders to predict their earnings, leaves them vulnerable to harassment from customers, and say that restaurant owners do not always make up the difference when workers’ tips don’t reach the full minimum wage.

Opponents have suggested that customers might tip less if they know servers and bartenders are making higher hourly wages, leading to lower overall take-home pay, and have warned that restaurants could struggle, cut staff hours or even close when required to pay higher hourly wages to tipped workers.

Chicago’s legislation — a notch in the belt for Mayor Brandon Johnson and progressive members of the City Council — passed following a push from One Fair Wage, which advocates for the end of the tipped minimum wage throughout the country.

An earlier version of the city’s ordinance would’ve phased out the gap between the subminimum and regular minimum wage over two years. The Illinois Restaurant Association, which pushed back hard against the campaign, referred to the final deal as a “compromise we can accept.”

Legislation to eliminate the subminimum wage in Illinois stalled in Springfield earlier this year, though advocates have vowed to keep pushing for it on the state level.

What is the minimum wage in the suburbs?

It depends on the suburb. The Cook County minimum wage will rise to $14.05 an hour on July 1. For tipped workers, the county minimum wage will remain $8.40.

But not all municipalities in Cook County follow the county minimum wage, because municipalities are permitted to enact their own minimum wage ordinances.

The municipalities that follow the Cook County minimum wage are Barrington Hills, Berwyn, Countryside, Deerfield, Dolton, Evanston, Glencoe, Kenilworth, McCook, Northfield, Oak Brook, Oak Park, Phoenix, Skokie, University Park, Western Springs, Wilmette and Winnetka, according to Julia Epplin-Zapf, a policy analyst for the county’s Department of Human Rights & Ethics.

All municipalities in Illinois must follow, at minimum, the statewide minimum wage of $14 an hour and $8.40 for tipped workers. The state minimum wage follows a different increase schedule than the city and county and will rise to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2025.

I’m not sure if I’m being paid correctly and/or I want to file a complaint.

Workers with questions about the minimum wage can call the Office of Labor Standards at 312-744-2211 or reach out via email at bacplaborstandards@cityofchicago.org, Campos said.

Complaints can be filed by downloading a complaint form from the department’s website, calling 311, or using the CHI 311 mobile app, Campos said. Complaints can be filed anonymously, he noted.