cut staff<\/a> as well as their hours.<\/p>\n\u201cYou end up actually working fewer shifts and making less money,\u201d said Oliver, a single mother of three who has worked as a server for two decades.<\/p>\n
Since 2024, Bronzeville Winery has reduced its servers from about 10 to six, Williams said. The restaurant has also raised menu prices to offset additional higher costs due to ongoing inflation and tariffs.<\/p>\n
Williams said in a rare case where tips don\u2019t bring servers to the standard minimum wage threshold, many restaurant payroll systems automatically pay the base rate.<\/p>\n
The ordinance doesn\u2019t just hurt smaller restaurants like Bronzeville Winery, Williams said. It \u201cwill destroy restaurants in the city, especially the ones who hire Black employees. The Black restaurant owner is the one who bets on our neighborhoods, not outside special interest groups who come into our city, lobby and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of hiring servers, restaurants could shift to counter service or using technology such as apps and tablets.<\/p>\n
They are also cutting opening hours and closing earlier, said Gina Barge-Farmer, owner of Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop near Noble Square. As a result, servers work shorter shifts and don\u2019t earn as much. Wax Vinyl opened nearly two years ago and has also cut staff due to rising costs.<\/p>\n
Wax Vinyl\u2019s servers typically make more than $30 an hour. \u201cMy goal is to make my staff as much money as humanly possible,\u201d Barge-Farmer said.<\/p>\n
The controversy about the tipped minimum wage is \u201ca misunderstanding of math,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the hook for paying the minimum wage, irrespective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under federal law, restaurant owners must pay tipped workers the local hourly minimum wage if their tips plus base salary don\u2019t reach that minimum threshold. In other words, if servers earn less than the standard hourly minimum wage, restaurateurs must pay them the difference.<\/p>\n
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act created this \u201ctip credit\u201d system and employers who violate the law are supposed to be penalized. But not all restaurants comply, which might be more often the case with smaller, less-established eateries.<\/p>\n
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia has urged crackdowns on employers who don\u2019t pay the guaranteed minimum wage rather than requiring Chicago restaurants to hike the tipped minimum wage.<\/p>\n
Barge-Farmer believes Chicago\u2019s restaurant scene is the best in the country. But she cautions anyone against opening a restaurant here.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t do it. It\u2019s harder and harder to build anything sustainable,\u201d she said. \u201cOne would think the city of Chicago would be more supportive. Instead, it\u2019s death by a thousand cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wax Vinyl operates on thin margins. \u201cIf it continues this way, I can\u2019t say I want to continue. I\u2019d be happy to close if it gets worse,\u201d Barge-Farmer said.<\/p>\n
The mayor \u201chas very good intentions,\u201d Oliver said. But \u201cthese policies make it difficult for other restaurants to go into the headwinds in under-resourced communities,\u201d such as Bronzeville and South Shore, where she lives.<\/p>\n
Williams said, \u201cI understand the mayor is trying to raise wages for workers. But you have to get under the hood to understand how restaurants work.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed out that activists who originally spearheaded the campaign don\u2019t live in the community. \u201cWe should be the ones who are listened to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some restaurant owners and servers say Chicago\u2019s hotly debated law to increase the tipped minimum wage harms workers and the industry, following Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s veto of the City Council\u2019s vote to freeze tipped workers\u2019 hourly pay. Supporters of the ordinance want better pay and conditions for workers. Chicago\u2019s law went into effect in 2024 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}