From today’s New York Times:
Protesters and two alderpersons rallied outside the National Restaurant Association’s convention at McCormick Place Monday, demanding the City Council raise tipped workers’ minimum pay while condemning the association’s push to loosen child labor laws.
The protesters also condemned the trade group — which they mockingly called “the other NRA” — for lobbying against wage increases for workers with money it gets from those very employees who pay for mandated safety training programs.
Alds. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Jessie Fuentes (26th) assured the protesters that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration would support an ordinance raising tipped workers’ pay from $9.24 per hour, for large companies, to at least $15.
“Workers are at the table and will no longer be on the menu,” Sigcho-Lopez told the crowd.
Sigcho-Lopez said one of Johnson’s first meetings after he was elected was with members of One Fair Wage, the national group lobbying to end “sub-minimum wages” for tipped restaurant workers.
“Our communities are affected by these unfair and unjust practices,” said Sigcho-Lopez, who is poised to be the City Council’s new Housing Committee chair. “We know the sub-minimum wage or low wages create … inequalities as well as the violence that we see in our communities.”
There is no current draft ordinance to raise the wages of tipped workers, Fuentes said, but she is willing to work with One Fair Wage to “figure it out.”
Read the complete story here.