It’s an urban/rural race to the top of the pay scale for minimum-wage workers

I was amused to learn that the City Council will likely be considering a measure that would boost the minimum wage for workers at Chicago-based companies.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off on $15 by 2025; will we see demand for $15 by 2021?

The measure in question by 4^th Ward Alderman Sophia King wants to see the minimum wage – currently $13 an hour – rise up to $15 by the year 2021.

WHAT’S THE BIG deal? Illinois law already calls for increases in the minimum wage, with the General Assembly just this year passing a bill that boosts the minimum pay to that $15 hourly rate by the year 2025.

If the city does nothing, that $15 rate eventually will be achieved. It will apply to employees of Chicago-based companies just as much as those of companies based elsewhere in the state.

Yet King argues that the city needs to have a higher pay scale, so to speak, than other parts of Illinois, because the city has a higher cost of living than other parts of the state.

It’s important, King argues, that Chicago reach the $15 hourly rate for adults stuck working in menial jobs before everyone else in the state. Thereby making it a race to the top of the scale between those working in Chicago and those working elsewhere – which usually is more a matter of where one happens to live.

NOW I’LL ADMIT that in some aspects, urban life carries a higher price tag.

Although I also know of people who insist that suburban life is more expensive. Often these are the people who live their lives in parts of the city that those with more significant incomes can choose to avoid living in.

They say that a move to the suburbs would wind up being too costly.

More often than not, they’re likely to be the individuals who most likely are forced to eke out an existence on an income based on a minimum-wage job – often doing some sort of scut-work that those of us with opportunities can avoid having to do.

KING: Pushing for minimum wage raise for Chgo?

SO IS IT really the case that a Chicago worker needs a higher minimum-wage pay rate than someone elsewhere in Illinois? It doesn’t really matter how low a cost-of-living rate is in a community.

Truth be told, a minimum wage isn’t going to stretch that far. Even at a $15 hourly rate, one is not going to “live like a king” if they’re stuck laboring at a job that many people would associate with a teenager who’s never had a job before in their lives.

Who, by the way, would not be impacted by these increases in minimum-wage rates. Companies will still be able to pay those workers less -- $4.25 an hour, if under 20.

Which makes me wonder if an increase in the minimum wage rate (an issue that is popular amongst a certain type of person with activist mentality) will only result in more teenagers getting hired.

WE’LL GO BACK to walking into a fast-food franchise and seeing pimply-faced teens trying to earn spending money, rather than a middle-aged person whose job skills are such that they have few other options in life.

I do realize labor is labor. A job is a job – particularly since there have been points in my own work life that I did jobs whose only real purpose was to bring in a paycheck, no matter how minimal. There was nothing noble about the work – other than it brought in an honest income that enabled some bills to be paid.

Will minimum wage fight shift to City Hall?

But I wonder what happens come the mid-2020s when Illinois’ minimum wage rate reaches $15 – some four years after Chicago. Will city-based workers wind up demanding yet another raise in their rates?

Will we become too accustomed to city-based people in menial jobs having to be paid just a tad extra than those elsewhere doing identical work, leading to the urban-rural brawl of the future!

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Times evolve, but in some ways remain remarkably similar to the past

I couldn’t help but be amused by a story the Chicago Sun-Times published recently – one about restaurant help being taken advantage of because of their position on society’s fringes due to their ethnic status.

An ethnic mixture that's truly all-American

In this case, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism worked with the newspaper to prepare a lengthy story about all those workers doing the labor in Chinese restaurants and buffets located across the Midwestern U.S.

IT SEEMS LIKE an old tale – Chinese immigrants being used and abused as cheap labor who can’t really complain about their treatment. If they don’t like it, they can go back to China.

Except these weren’t Chinese immigrants. For it seems the kitchen help consists largely of Mexican immigrants. These are people who got these jobs though employment agencies that tend to cater to providing labor for Chinese-oriented businesses, including restaurants.

And in many cases, the news organizations reported, the decision to seek out Latino-oriented workers was a conscious one by the Chinese businesses.

One could try to put the spin on things by saying these businesses know hard workers when they see them, so the conscious decision to seek out Mexicans in need of jobs is a fully-legitimate one.

ALTHOUGH LET’S BE honest. What it really amounts to is the reason why many businesses in our society seek out individuals of ethnic origins to do the physical labor that needs to be done in order for a business to operate.

Not all jobs involve sitting around on one’s duff and tapping out a few keys on a computer of sorts.

They really do want people who might be trying to draw as little attention to themselves as possible while managing to earn an income in order to survive.

Past attitudes towards Mexicans not all that different … 

Finding those people whose immigration status makes many question their presence means you can have a work force inclined not to complain – even if one is treating those workers with less than proper respect as people and as a labor force.

BUT PERHAPS THIS is merely evidence of our society evolving – albeit in a manner that is rather embarrassing to all of us.

For there was a time when it would have been Chinese workers being brought over to this country to do the work that no one else wanted to do, and treating them in a demeaning manner.

Now, we get the image of Chinese ethnics seeking out Mexicans to do the work of maintaining those restaurants that can be quite popular with the bulk of our society. What comes next? Mexican business owners finding hard-working African Muslims in need of work and willing to put up with nonsense when it comes to human rights?

It’s embarrassing to see that on one level, our society isn’t evolving in the least. The idea that some people think exploitation of one’s labor force is the only way to manage to make a profitable business entity truly is appalling.

PARTICULARLY SINCE THE news organizations reported the degree to which these businesses are providing inadequate housing for their labor (which is part of the deal by which they get these workers to take jobs with them). And also that while the restaurants and other businesses pay these employment agencies a fee for finding the workers, the laborers then have money taken from their wages to reimburse the business for that fee.

… from those toward Chinese

Almost as though one has to “pay” for the “right” to hold a crummy job that manages to take advantage of their situation in life – which is to be in need of a job so badly that one thinks someone else is “entitled” to take advantage of them.

As one of Mexican ethnic origins myself, I’d like to think we’re somehow above this and will never be in a status where we choose to exploit other individuals in such a manner. Although in this Age of Trump, I wonder if there are those who would say that such status is evidence that we’re (as “The Jeffersons” of TV fame on told us) “Movin’ on Up.”

Although as we Chicagoans all know, there’s no “East Side” of the city to move up to – unless you count the 10^th Ward neighborhood where many of us already live.

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EXTRA: Minimum wage continues to rise for fortunate few who work in Chi

I have known of teenagers who live in Indiana in the areas just along the state line with Illinois who always made a point of getting those summer jobs on our side of State Line Road. Illinois’ minimum wage is slightly higher – meaning more money in the paycheck.

The Wendy's and Popeye's fast food franchises located across the street pay better than this Indiana-based business

Now, the gap is going to become even larger. What with the city’s minimum wage continuing to rise so that anybody fortunate enough to get a job within the city limits will be able to claim significantly more money.

THE MEASURE THE City Council approved several years ago to boost the state-mandated minimum wage that must be paid to people working for Chicago-based companies took another rise on Sunday.

The first of July resulted in the Chicago minimum wage rising to $12 per hour – much higher than the $8.25 minimum wage called for by any company based elsewhere in Illinois.

Including those suburban places right up against the city limits. Or those places in Indiana that are right up against the East Side and Hegewisch neighborhoods of Chicago. Because the Indiana minimum wage remains the same as the federal level of $7.25 per hour.

Could it be that our very own businesses will be able to claim better-qualified workers because they’ll attract workers with their higher wage? And yes, I know that the Chicago minimum wage law is geared toward adult workers who are stuck in lower-paying jobs – teens can still be paid less.

Menial labor heads west TO Illinois

BUT I COULDN’T help but notice the study released Monday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal. The University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign-based academics say the increased salaries haven’t caused the harm that some feared. The idea that having to pay workers more would cost businesses financially.

Not quite the labor force

“As minimum wages in Chicago have increased, private sector business growth has kept pace – and in some cases exceeded – that of suburbs where the minimum wage didn’t change,” the study says, also pointing out that unemployment in the city proper has dropped slightly more than in the suburbs.

It will be intriguing to see how this trend continues, since the same City Council ordinance continues to take effect on July 1, 2019 – when the minimum wage rises to $13 per hour. As for those people who argue higher minimum wages will result in more menial jobs being done by machines, I’d argue those employers will want to mechanize their labor forces even if the minimum wage was reduced.

Political people, meanwhile, continue to argue for and against the idea of a $15 per hour minimum wage as a standard across the nation. An idea that will cause much arguing amongst our politicos – while they make me wonder how much better things are now, since I still recall my own teenaged days of a $3.35 per hour minimum wage.

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Rahm wants your vote come Feb. 27! He’ll do what’s necessary to get it!

It will be interesting to see the activity of the next few days as city officials scramble to try to impose a significant boost in the minimum wage; as Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to have an accomplishment that can be used to appeal to the voters of Chicago who right now are inclined to want to dump him from office.

That accomplishment is an increase in the minimum wage paid by Chicago-based companies to up to $13 per hour by 2019. It would be a gradual increase implemented in coming years.

IT WOULD BE far more than the measures being pondered by the General Assembly in Springfield, which has hinted it might consider an increase from the current $8.25 per hour to $10. then to $11 by 2017. Which would make Chicago companies better paying for those who have to rely on minimum wage work to earn a living.

That has some political people concerned that the differential will harm business interests. It is why some are pondering that a state minimum wage increase ought to include provisions preventing any community in the state from imposing its own pay rate.

Yet Emanuel, in his struggle to try to appeal to less-than-wealthy Chicagoans living in places outside of the neighborhoods of the north lakefront, wants that $13 per hour increase -- even if it won't take effect until the very end of the upcoming mayoral term.

He wants to be able to boast about that as an accomplishment as he tries to undercut the appeal of mayoral challengers Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Robert Fioretti to those working stiffs.

HE CERTAINLY DOESN’T want the political “yahoos” in Springfield to steal away that option from him. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if, should the General Assembly were to pass such a bill, outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn would sign it into law as a way of tweaking the egos of both Emanuel and Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner simultaneously!

The state Legislature comes back to Springfield Tuesday through Thursday for the remainder of its fall veto session, and state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, has said the Legislature may act this week on the issue.

Which is why city officials last week scheduled a committee session to review a proposed minimum wage hike for Chicago come Monday. Then, on Tuesday, the full City Council will hold a special meeting – the sole purpose of which is to approve whatever gets recommended by the committee the day before.

Is it possible for the city to pass something before the General Assembly convenes Tuesday afternoon? Would the state try to pass something that they would claim circumvents Chicago’s ability to address the issue on its own?

WILL WE GET a lengthy legal fight over whose bill/ordinance will be allowed to prevail? Will there be bruised political egos, no matter what the outcome of the issue?

How much will Emanuel be willing to expend to ensure he prevails? Because while he can count on the same north lakefront support of people who in last month’s gubernatorial election were willing to vote for Rauner or not vote for governor at all, that isn’t enough to win a municipal election.

He wants to have credit for providing a higher minimum wage!

Just as he used his first campaign ads of the mayoral election cycle to take credit for the closings in recent years of coal-burning power plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND Latino activists who were involved with those efforts to reduce air pollution caused by those plants think that Emanuel was actually an obstacle to their efforts, which were ongoing long before Rahm became mayor in 2011.

But Emanuel wants to be on the side of “the people” and is willing to give himself a bit of praise; hoping that most of us weren’t paying much attention to know who did what.

He wants these “accomplishments,” just like he’s bound to seek many more in coming months as he tries to persuade a majority to believe that “Rahm II” won’t be a complete mistake for Chicago.

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Will Mr. Burns “release the hounds” on Pat Quinn? Minimum wage lingers on

My first thought to learning that Gov. Pat Quinn tried bashing all four of the major Republican candidates who want to take his post from him was to wonder if a rush of Dobermans would now come charging at him and tear his body to shreds.

BURNS: Should he be Ill. gov?

After all, Quinn issued a statement (on his campaign letterhead, not his official gubernatorial stationery) saying that the GOP candidates for governor, “have all the compassion of C. Montgomery Burns.”

I CAN’T ENVISION the “Mr. Burns” character from “The Simpsons” (a television program that has been around for nearly half my life, even though I can’t remember the last time I watched a new episode) putting up with any guff from a mere peon like Pat Quinn.

“Release the hounds!!!!!!!” Let them deal with the impudent excuse for a governor that we have.

Now I realize that Burns and his nuclear power plant that probably violates every single environmental law in existence (how else to explain the three-eyed fish of old) is a fictional character.

Although somehow, I suspect the gubernatorial candidates are going to wish they could use such a tactic against Quinn – who’s trying to make sure that the whole fiasco related to the minimum wage lingers around for awhile.

IF IT FADES away, Quinn loses what could be his weapon that could inspire voters to think that they approve less of the Republican challengers than they do him.

For the record, Quinn wants an increase in the minimum wage for Illinois to $10 – which probably would be phased in over a few years.

Candidate Bruce Rauner created a whirlwind when he suggested that the minimum wage could actually be decreased – for the benefit of businesses in Illinois. The stink he stirred up was so intense that he’s now backtracking (and also trying to claim his thoughts were distorted).

QUINN: Devoured by the hounds, or the voters?

Other candidates aren’t ridiculous enough to say something so blunt – although they’re not about to back Quinn’s suggestion that low-level labor ought to get more money. They’re more interested in the corporate vote, which sees this as an attack on their financial bottom line.

WHICH IS USUALLY key to determining what kind of financial bonus they get for their work. Non-profitable companies don’t pay out such perks.

It’s also interesting to see the “debate,” of sorts, that has arisen, as Rauner wrote a commentary on the minimum wage issue that hints at letting such salaries increase – under certain circumstances.

“By far, the best ways to raise wages are to have a booming economy with companies competing to hire workers, and have great schools and vocational training that provide skills people need to move up the economic ladder,” Rauner wrote.

While Quinn, after making his “Simpsons” allusion, said he thinks the increase is the way to start toward a booming economy, saying, “Everyday people don’t admire the extra money they earn in the bank; they spend it in the local community, creating more jobs.”

IT’S ALL TRULY a matter of just which set of voters do the candidates want to appeal to.

Rauner wants to get the votes of the bosses who run companies, while Quinn wants their employees. Although Rauner seems to think that maybe if those employees are suffering a bit, they’ll blame Quinn and vote for him instead.

SMITHERS: Would he be Lt. Gov?

In all, it’s a rhetorical exchange notable only because we don’t get all that many “Simpsons” references in an election cycle. Although I wonder if the most-offended person in all of this is Peter Jones.

He’s the Franklin Park resident who also is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination who wasn’t even included in Quinn’s attack. Does that make him the equivalent of Burns’ sycophant “Smithers?”

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How minimal is minimum (when it comes to wages across the state of Ill.)?

It has been awhile since I have had to work a job that paid minimum wage – so long that I recall being paid $3.25 an hour.

RAUNER: $7.25?

In fact, I suspect most people don’t give much thought to the issue; unless they happen to be in circumstances under which that is all anyone wants to pay them – and those employers go out of their way to complain that even that amount of money is too much.

SO I’M GUESSING it’s going to be a bit of a shock to many people as this election cycle we’re now in will force them to give a thought to just how little someone can be paid for their work.

Currently, employers in Illinois are required to pay their hourly workers no less than $8.25 per hour (which I would have thought of as a fortune back when I was 16 and didn’t know any better).

Gov. Pat Quinn is on the record as supporting an increase of the state minimum wage to $10 per hour. While voters in Chicago will be asked to vote on a referendum question as to whether the minimum wage ought to be boosted to $15 per hour.

Which is the rate that many of those organized labor protests outside of fast food franchise restaurants are demanding. I can recall when I was in junior high school, one of my fellow students felt the need to boast that her father had a $15 hourly salary – which was meant to sound impressive.

THEN AGAIN, $15 an hour doesn’t buy as much as it did a third of a century ago.

On the Republican side of the electoral equation, most of the candidates for governor are trying to avoid saying anything about the issue. Why tick off poor people who can vote (even though I suspect some GOP types wish that somehow the vote could be taken from them)?

QUINN: $10?

Except for Bruce Rauner, the wealthy venture capitalist and friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He used a candidate forum in the Quad Cities to say he wants to drop the state’s minimum wage, although in recent days he's tried to back track by saying he merely wants to study the issue.

A reduction is possible because the U.S. government has a $7.25 per hour minimum wage that applies across the nation, unless individual states wish to go higher. Illinois does. Indiana – for example – does not, which translates even at higher pay scales into the idea among Indiana residents that they have to come work in Illinois to make real money.

RAUNER SPEWS RHETORIC about wanting Illinois to be “competitive” with other states, implying that companies will want to locate elsewhere because they can save a buck (literally) on labor costs.

CHICAGO VOTERS: $15???

Actually, it just shows him taking sides, and it certainly isn’t with organized labor. This will be yet another reason why some of the unions in this state will decide to put their campaign cash into supporting anybody BUT Bruce.

Of course, some of the national organizations are choosing to give their cash to Quinn instead of a Republican primary campaign that they probably wouldn’t support in the November general election.

There are going to be a lot of choices for people who wouldn’t otherwise bother to even think about the issue. It will be curious to see who winds up prevailing, and how much of a statement it winds up making about the value of labor in Illinois.

AS FOR RAUNER, his attitude on this issue and other related questions winds up coming across as someone who doesn’t value the labor that does the work that enables companies to succeed.

It makes him seem like someone who wants to blame his employees for the fact that his profit margin isn’t higher. He’d better not be surprised when such an attitude winds up costing him votes come the March 18 primary.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like a four-day holiday weekend to start off the Christmas/winter holiday celebration

There was one moment last week when the Cook County Board was going through its excruciating process of searching for places in the county budget to cut costs when I felt like standing up and cheering.

These still-standing halls will be vacant a year from now

Except that my legs were so cramped up for sitting for hours on end that I suspect I would have pulled a muscle or done something else to seriously hurt myself.

THAT WAS WHEN the county board came up with a day they believe they can get away with shutting down the entire apparatus of Cook County government (except for those few all-hours people who work at the county hospital or for the sheriff’s police).

I’m talking, of course, about today. This unique day that comes up every single year. It’s the Day after Thanksgiving, which because that food-fest holiday falls every year on Thursday means this one comes on Friday.

Which means they both come before the Saturday/Sunday weekend that would see them take off.

The county budget for the 2012 fiscal year was balanced in part because beginning one year from now, county government will no longer even pretend that it is open and functioning on a regular basis on this day.

WHICH FAR TOO many people have either turned into an unofficial day off, or become the work ethic-equivalent of Homer Simpson if by chance they do have to show up at the office on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

It seems that nothing of any practicality gets done.

So perhaps we should just acknowledge that there’s no point to the first official day of the winter holiday shopping season should be anything more – except to those people who work in the stores that are selling all those goods.

Those people get to endure a true “Day from Hades” on Friday, having to endure the crowds AND the fact that too many stores seem determined to boost their profits from the day by being open at ridiculous hours in the early morning.

BY THE TIME most of you (those of you who are sane individuals) will have read this, there will already be some people who will have started their holiday shopping (and at least a few of those people will be of the type who will be grossly offended at my use of the word “holiday” in place some something with a “Christ” in it).

There have been times in my work as a reporter-type person where I have had to work on this day, and have wound up spending it chasing down holiday shoppers on State Street or Michigan Avenue.

As though that was the only serious work being done on the day.

For even the people who are pretending to work, it seems, are just looking for a chance to step out of the office for a “break” that will allow them to do a bit of shopping of their own.

NOW, WE WON’T have to endure the sight of county employees cheating in such a way. The county will be closed on Nov. 23, 2012, except for those emergency workers who do their jobs in large part out of a sense of public dedication as much as the actual paycheck.

Which will wind up taking a hit. Because the Day after Thanksgiving won’t be a paid holiday.

The budget amendment crafted by staffers for county commissioners Jerry Butler and Jesus Garcia decrees that all workers (both union and non-union) will get their salaries reduced by 1/261^st to account for the fact that they won’t be coming in to work a year from now.

It also says that managers will have to monitor their employees’ hours during the Thanksgiving holiday week to ensure that someone doesn’t wind up hitting 40 hours and getting overtime pay, in addition to the day off.

I MUST CONFESS that I despise the idea of furloughs – those days that county officials have used in recent years to get away with unpaid days for their workers. For in some cases, those workers wind up having to put in extra hours some other time to make up for the undone work on the day off.

To my sensibility, it comes across as asking workers to work a few hours for free.



Even 70 years later, State Street will have some hustle and bustle and holiday activity on Friday. Image provided by Chuckman's Collection.



But this one bothers me much less because it’s coming at a time when there just wasn’t much work being done. It’s a reflection of reality, and I’m sure it will be appreciated because it will mean that we won’t have workers trying to get themselves enthused about one more workday before the weekend – right after that day in which they stuffed themselves silly.

Better to have them stay at home. Perched in front of the television for a bit, where they can watch the overzealous (and ultimately trivial) reporting being done about all those crazy shoppers – the kind of people that make me NOT want to set foot near a shopping mall for the next month.

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