On Tuesday, voters will go to the polls in one of the Chicago area’s more eventful primary days in recent memory. Wednesday, Chicago’s City Council will be back at work and aldermen will be faced with a significant decision that could help restore badly needed business confidence in the city.
Aldermen led by Samantha Nugent, who represents the 39th Ward on the far Northwest Side, are planning to use a parliamentary maneuver to force a vote that could give struggling independent restaurants the chance to grow again in Chicago.
At issue is the gradual elimination of the tipped minimum wage paid to servers at restaurants, a policy set by ordinance in the early months of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s term. Under city law, following stepped-up increases in 2024 and 2025, restaurants now must pay tipped workers 76% of the city’s minimum wage for most other workers, which sits at $16.60. Servers currently get $12.62 an hour before whatever tips they collect from customers.
Under current law, restaurants will be required on July 1 to hike their minimum hourly pay for servers further to 84% of the city’s overall minimum. Within the next few years, servers will be paid the same minimum wage per hour as other workers.
Restaurant owners have been pleading for the better part of a year for the law to be repealed or at least to keep the minimum wage for servers where it is now. There’s ample evidence that restaurants in Chicago are closing or cutting jobs in response to the law, which is one of the few progressive priorities Johnson has managed to win from the council since he became mayor nearly three years ago.
Johnson has shown no interest in revisiting the issue and city officials essentially have denied any problem exists. A proposal to freeze the minimum wage for servers was introduced in the City Council last year but has been stifled in committee ever since. So Nugent plans to force the action at Wednesday’s meeting, using a rule that allows for alders to bring a measure to a vote if it has sat in committee without action for 60 days.
She told the Chicago Sun-Times she’s confident she has the 26 votes necessary to force the measure to the floor and pass it. If so, and we hope so, Johnson will have to decide whether to veto, with 34 votes necessary to override.
Restaurant owners are struggling mightily to cope with the wage where it stands now. But they’re not seeking to repeal the ordinance altogether. The compromise they support would keep the tipped minimum wage at 76% of the city’s minimum wage, which means the tipped minimum wage will rise along with the overall wage. That’s more than fair on the part of the restaurateurs.
A recent direct comparison is instructive.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, responding to similar cries for help from restaurants, last year sought repeal of a similar law in the nation’s capital. The D.C. Council was unwilling to go that far, but the compromise that ended up passing last summer was of greater aid to the industry than what Nugent and her allies are proposing for Chicago. D.C. now will see its tipped minimum wage inch up to 75% of the regular minimum wage, but not until 2034. As it stands, Chicago’s tipped minimum wage already is 76% of the full version.
This page backed the industry’s stance last summer and laid out the reasons then. The threat to one of the city’s true lifebloods is real; restaurants — particularly, independent, locally owned and operated eateries — are central to Chicago’s identity and appeal, as the television series “The Bear” effectively depicted.
Moreover, just speak to a server in the business, and you are likely to hear fervent opposition to more of this “help” from progressive ideologues who have little understanding of how this business functions. Most servers currently earn well over the minimum wage — more than double in many cases — after tips. The future of tips as we know them is at risk if Chicago continues on this path. You are very likely to see specified service charges added to bills and discretionary tips becoming much rarer. Many servers will make far less than they do now under such a system, even after the tipped minimum wage is eliminated altogether.
So, aldermen, you can do two important things with your votes on Wednesday. You can give restaurants a fighting chance to soldier on, maintain the jobs they provide now, and create more such jobs in the future. And, just as important, you can send an important signal to the broader business community that Chicago is returning to prioritizing economic growth.
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