{"id":202513,"date":"2026-04-19T12:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202513\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:31:19","slug":"chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-compares-restaurant-industry-to-slavery-during-tipped-wage-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202513\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson compares restaurant industry to \u2018slavery\u2019 during tipped wage fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson linked the restaurant industry to \u201cslavery\u201d Wednesday as he defended his push to eliminate the tipped wage, doubling down after surviving a City Council effort to block the policy.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s remarks <\/a>came after the\u00a0Chicago City Council\u00a0failed to override his veto of a measure that would have halted the city\u2019s phaseout of the subminimum wage for tipped workers \u2014 a policy set to raise base pay to the full minimum wage by 2028 that is opposed by restaurant owners who warn it could drive up prices and cut jobs.<\/p>\n

He called on Chicagoans to \u201cchallenge city council not to do stuff like take wages away from Black and Brown people,\u201d saying\u00a0that most workers in the service industry who rely on tips are minorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just watched the entire city council, in transparency, try to take wages away from the very people who are part of an industry that has its ties to slavery is hiding from that,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI am boldly declaring that we need reparations in this city, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m funding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

City aldermen voted\u00a0last month to end the wage increase for tipped workers, but Johnson vetoed it.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a press conference where he linked the restaurant industry to slavery on April 15, 2026. FOX 32 Chicago\/YouTube<\/p>\n

\"JohnsonJohnson called on Chicagoans to \u201cchallenge city council not to do stuff like take wages away from Black and Brown people,\u201d New Africa \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Restaurant owners and associations have pushed back on the city\u2019s phaseout of the subminimum wage, saying it will shrink their already tight profit margins.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s City Council failed to meet the 34-vote requirement to overturn the phaseout.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s comments came in response to a question from a person who claimed that Johnson\u2019s Reparations Task Force<\/a> was not in compliance with\u00a0Illinois state law, which mandates that all public bodies hold public meetings.<\/p>\n

Johnson denied the assertion that his task force, which he launched in June 2024, was not being transparent with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a black man in America calling for the reparations of black people,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThere is no hiding or escaping that. I\u2019m taking a bold statement here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson allotted $500,000 to the task force in 2024.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the task force and city\u00a0kicked off a bus tour\u00a0as part of \u201cRepair Chicago,\u201d a community engagement effort created to explore firsthand the \u201cimpacts of systemic harm faced by Black Chicagoans.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Johnson\u2019s office doubled down on Johnson linking tipped wages to slavery, suggesting that it became common practice for \u201cwhite employers in the South\u201d following the Emancipation.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, many Black workers, particularly women, continue to rely on tips and subminimum wages to support themselves and their families,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cThe institutionalized reliance on tipping remains a uniquely American phenomenon, and Mayor Johnson is proud to be a leader in the movement to ensure\u00a0working people\u00a0across the country receive the dignity and respect they deserve in the workplace, and have the ability to support themselves and their loved ones in a system that has historically denied them fair and stable wages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson linked the restaurant industry to \u201cslavery\u201d Wednesday as he defended his push to eliminate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23563,8287,5350,9,11,10,15797,821,47163,32708,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-202513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-brandon-johnson","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-reparations","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-slavery","17":"tag-tips","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}