Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Special to suffredin.org

The Cook County Board passed my Cook County Minimum Wage Ordinance on October 26, 2016. The vote was 12 to 3. This ordinance corrects an inequality that was created when the City of Chicago created an ordinance to increase the minimum wage for workers in the City gradually until reaching $13 an hour on July 1, 2019. That created a two tier pay scale with City workers currently making $10.50 an hour and Suburban workers making $8.25 an hour for the same job.

The County ordinance starts at $10 an hour on July 1, 2017 and increases a dollar an hour every July 1^st there after until it reaches $13 an hour in 2020. This schedule of minimum wage increases was done to make the changes reasonable from a record keeping perspective.

This ordinance will cover over 200,000 suburban workers who currently make $8.25 an hour. The passage of this hopefully will cause the Congress and the General Assembly to pass a broader minimum wage law.

I am thankful to the many constituents, church committees, the People’s Lobby and One Northside for their guidance and support.

Click here to read a copy of the ordinance. Click here to see photos from the signing ceremony.