Chicago hikes bare minimum wage to $13
The faces of minimum wage
In one more victory for lower-wage workers, Chicago turned the latest town to raise its minimum wage Tuesday.
The city council authorized an improve to $ 13 an hour by 2019.
A lot of states and cities have accepted neighborhood will increase this year, although federal-level conversations about boosting the minimum wage for all Individuals have stalled.
The Chicago improve was backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and handed with frustrating assist by a vote of forty four-5.
The wage hike will be phased in steadily. Chicago’s minimal wage workers will get their initial increase on July one, 2015, when the fee goes from $ eight.25 to $ ten an hour. After it hits $ 13 in 2019, it will be pegged to inflation.
The vote also raises the wage for tipped staff from $ four.ninety five to $ five.ninety five in excess of the subsequent two years.
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Advocates say the improve will give 410,000 people a bump in spend, and lift 70,000 personnel out of poverty.
But not absolutely everyone supports the transfer. The local chamber of commerce and condition retail and cafe groups warn that it could wipe out some reduced-wage positions.
Emanuel, who is up for reelection in February, rapidly-tracked the bill’s acceptance by scheduling a particular city council conference Tuesday early morning.
In the meantime, Illinois lawmakers are considering a improve to the minimal wage at the condition amount. Voters backed a hike to $ ten on Election Working day, but that vote was nonbinding.
Least wage & pot win big
Voters in San Francisco agreed in November to increase the minimal wage to $ 15 an hour by 2018, while voters in Oakland backed a evaluate to elevate it to $ twelve.25. Previously this yr, Seattle accredited a minimal wage hike to $ fifteen by 2021.
Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota all accepted proposals to increase the minimal wage in November. Individuals states be part of 12 other folks and Washington, D.C., all of which have moved in the previous two several years to increase their condition minimums.
In the meantime, the Democratic drive in Congress to increase the federal minimal wage to $ 10.ten from $ seven.twenty five has absent nowhere.