Chowing vittles on Valentine’s Day in Chicago, restaurant patrons can tell it’s the industry’s busiest day of the year. However, they may be unaware that 250,000 are employed in Chicagoland’s restaurant industry and 78 percent of them earn less than a living wage(PDF).
Yesterday, February 14 Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago staff and a member, who’s a local server delivered sweet goodies to several public officials and asked them to “love their server” by supporting an increase in minimum wage. ROC Chicago is dedicated to winning improved conditions and raising industry standards for all Chicagoland restaurant workers.
The restaurant industry is one of the largest employers in the private sector. Too many in the restaurant industry make a minimum wage, while their employer’s profits are way above that.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and Illinois minimum wage is $8.25. Illinois law allows tipped workers, such as servers in Chicago to make a pay rate of $4.95 an hour (60 percent of IL minimum wage) plus tips and on a federal level, the pay rate for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour plus tips.
Congressman Danny Davis was thanked by ROC Chicago for his support of the WAGES Act, a bill that “makes progress toward closing the wage gap that currently exists between tipped employees and all other workers.” He was delivered a 2-layer pink cake with red and white hearts.
More treats were given to the staffs of Senators Antonio "Tony" Muñoz and Rickey R. Hendon for them to share the message to support the Illinois Minimum Wage Bill SB1565. The bill is to increase the state’s minimum wage to over $10 an hour over a four-year period and it is sponsored by Senator Kimberly Lightford.
Senator Iris Martinez is one of the co-sponsors of the bill and ROC Chicago was able to thank her in person with hugs and cookies for her support of SB1565.
SB1565 was introduced February 10 at the State Capitol in Springfield and ROC Chicago was able to take part in a press conference there with many other supporters. With several ROC Chicago members at hand, ROC stood with one of their leaders: Jazmin Curiel, a bartender and server who said during a television interview with WICS, “It’s kind of hard for us to survive.”
