A group of aldermen led by Far Northwest Side Ald. Samantha Nugent is lining up a procedural move that could put Chicago’s multi-year phase-out of the subminimum wage for tipped workers on ice. The maneuver, intended to force a City Council vote next week, sets up a blunt clash between neighborhood restaurateurs and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s pro-worker allies.
What aldermen are proposing
Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) says she plans to use a parliamentary tactic to freeze the phase-out and cap future increases to tipped pay, a change supporters argue would give strained restaurants some breathing room. Nugent and her backers say they have roughly 26 votes lined up to pull a stalled ordinance out of committee and bring it before the full council, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times.
How the One Fair Wage plan works
The procedural push was first detailed in reporting by Crain's Chicago Business, which framed the effort as an attempt to roll back one of Johnson’s marquee wins. The One Fair Wage ordinance passed in 2023 and launched a five-year phase-in on July 1, 2024. It requires annual bumps to the tipped wage that will bring it in line with Chicago’s regular minimum wage by July 1, 2028, WTTW notes.
Restaurants say the changes have bite
Restaurant owners and the Illinois Restaurant Association argue that the higher base pay has already meant steeper menu prices, trimmed staffing and outright closures in neighborhoods across the city. Industry advocates point to estimates that thousands of jobs vanished after the phase-in started. WBEZ reports that the association estimates about 5,200 restaurant jobs were lost between July and December 2024, and that many operators have cut hours or reduced staff to stay afloat.
Mayor and workers push back
Mayor Brandon Johnson has stood by the ordinance as a centerpiece of his pro-worker agenda and says the city will not reverse course, casting it as a question of economic and racial justice for tipped workers. Labor advocates and the measure’s authors echo that argument, saying tipped workers, who are disproportionately Black and Latina women, need a stable and predictable base wage, as WTTW reported.
What’s next
Nugent’s motion could hit the City Council floor next week, forcing aldermen to stake out a side between neighborhood restaurateurs and organized labor. If Johnson vetoes an ordinance that pauses the phase-out, it would take a two-thirds majority, or 34 votes, to override him, according to coverage by the Chicago Sun-Times. That threshold turns any bid to undo or significantly change the new wage rules into a high-stakes fight at City Hall.
