File #: 24-1697    Version: 1 Name:
Type: Resolution Status: Approved
File created: 2/22/2024 In control: Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee
On agenda: 2/29/2024 Final action: 5/16/2024
Title: PROPOSED RESOLUTION RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF ONE FAIR WAGE FOR WORKERS IN COOK COUNTY AND ACROSS ILLINOIS WHEREAS, the subminimum wage impacts a Cook County workforce of almost 78,000 tipped workers, 60 percent of whom are women and 46 percent are people of color; and WHEREAS, under the Cook County Minimum Wage Ordinance, the minimum hourly wage for adults over the age of 18 was raised to $14 for non-tipped workers per hour and $8.40 for tipped workers per hour on the 1st of January 2024; and WHEREAS, the "two-tiered" subminimum wage system exposes tipped workers to disproportional levels of poverty, financial uncertainty, exploitation of workers under the age of 18, and sexual harassment; and WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an estimated 2 million people are working as restaurant servers in the United States, and roughly 70 percent of them are women; and WHEREAS, almost 13 percent of tipped workers are in poverty, compared with approximately 6 percent of no...
Sponsors: ANTHONY J. QUEZADA, TARA S. STAMPS, ALMA E. ANAYA, JOSINA MORITA, BRIDGET DEGNEN, FRANK J. AGUILAR
title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF ONE FAIR WAGE FOR WORKERS IN COOK COUNTY AND ACROSS ILLINOIS

WHEREAS, the subminimum wage impacts a Cook County workforce of almost 78,000 tipped workers, 60 percent of whom are women and 46 percent are people of color; and

WHEREAS, under the Cook County Minimum Wage Ordinance, the minimum hourly wage for adults over the age of 18 was raised to $14 for non-tipped workers per hour and $8.40 for tipped workers per hour on the 1st of January 2024; and

WHEREAS, the "two-tiered" subminimum wage system exposes tipped workers to disproportional levels of poverty, financial uncertainty, exploitation of workers under the age of 18, and sexual harassment; and

WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an estimated 2 million people are working as restaurant servers in the United States, and roughly 70 percent of them are women; and

WHEREAS, almost 13 percent of tipped workers are in poverty, compared with approximately 6 percent of non-tipped employees, according to a 2014 joint report by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley; and

WHEREAS, income inequality due to tipped wages disproportionately impacts sole providers and their households, whom are often Black, brown, Indigenous, and women of color and single mothers; and

WHEREAS, in a study conducted by Michael Paarlberg and Teofilo Reyes, between the New York and Pennsylvania workforces along the state's border found that on aggregate, in the year following the tipped-minimum hike, those New York border counties saw workers take-home pay go up an average of 7.4 percent and employment go up 1.3 percent, compared with Pennsylvania border counties, which saw a pay increase of 2.2 percent and a decline in employment of 0.2 percent; and

WHEREAS, restaurant sales in states that have implemented One Fair Wage grew by 17 percent, according to 2017-2018 restaurant trade lobby estim...

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