The Chicago City Council is on the verge of ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. Please support the One Fair Wage initiative.

The legislation will: 

END THE SUBMINIMUM WAGE for tipped workers. The pay for tipped workers is just $8.70 per hour in Chicago. The subminimum wage impacts a Chicago workforce of almost 100,000 tipped workers, 44 percent of whom are women and 55 percent of whom are people of color. 

End A Direct Legacy of Slavery: THE SUBMINIMUM WAGE for tipped workers is a direct legacy of slavery. As Michelle Alexander writes, white business owners, still eager to find ways to steal Black labor after the Civil War, created the idea that tips would replace wages. In Chicago, the Pullman Company tried to institute the tipping system. However, A. Philip Randolph and the nation’s first Black union affiliated with the AFL won higher wages with tips on top.

Create a Level Playing Field for High Road Restaurants: Good-paying restaurants should be the standard, not the exception. Hundreds of Chicago employers now pay One Fair Wage to recruit and maintain staff but have to compete with restaurants that pay the subminimum wage. Meanwhile, thousands of Chicago-tipped workers are leaving the restaurant industry altogether and unwilling to return without One Fair Wage.