CHICAGO -- As Chicago considers a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021, a new study shows that black, female workers in tipped positions in the city struggle to make ends meet.
One Fair Wage, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for ending the subminimum wage, the lower wage that tipped workers collect, released a report on Thursday that found more than 27% of black workers in Chicago's dining industry were living in poverty, compared with about 18% of white workers in the same occupation.
One Fair Wage commissioned the report, which was conducted with the University of California, Berkeley and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a nonprofit organization that works to improve wages and working conditions for restaurant workers.
Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage and a professor at Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, said people of color in Chicago are disproportionately affected by the subminimum wage. Workers aren't able to pay for expenses because of the unreliability of tips and are pushed to use food stamps, Jayaraman said.
Alderman Sophia King has proposed an ordinance that would increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2021.
Currently, tipped workers collect a minimum wage of $6.40 an hour, plus additional gratuity they receive.
Jayaraman said Chicago has more tipped workers living in poverty than in other cities she has studied like New York, Los Angeles and Houston.
Business on 11/09/2019