Overview
- City Council approved the compromise on Wednesday, keeping the subminimum hourly wage for tipped workers at 76% of the regular minimum and pausing the scheduled increases.
- The ordinance holds the 76% rate through July 1, 2028 and then follows staggered phase-in schedules supplied by the Illinois Restaurant Association that push final parity dates into 2030–2033 for some employers.
- Under current law employers must top up pay when a worker’s hourly wage plus tips does not reach the full minimum, so the freeze delays automatic wage parity while preserving that legal backstop.
- Mayor Brandon Johnson previously vetoed a March pause and now faces a choice to issue a fourth veto or allow the compromise to become law without his support.
- Industry groups called the deal acceptable as a reprieve for restaurants, worker advocates reluctantly agreed to the substitute, and Budget Chair Jason Ervin cast the lone no vote calling the pause a moral and economic failure.