Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Invokes Slavery in Defense of Tipped Wage Policy

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson drew sharp reactions after linking the restaurant industry’s labor practices to the legacy of slavery while defending his veto of a City Council measure that would have paused the phase-out of the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The comments have reignited a contentious debate over the One Fair Wage ordinance, which is gradually eliminating the tipped wage differential in the nation’s third-largest city.

Mayor Johnson’s veto preserves the trajectory of a landmark 2023 ordinance that mandates a gradual elimination of Chicago’s tipped subminimum wage. Under current law, the tipped wage — historically set at roughly 60 percent of the standard minimum — is being raised by 8 percentage points annually until it reaches full parity. Restaurant owners and several aldermen had pushed a compromise measure to freeze further increases, citing mounting pressure on independent eateries already contending with inflation, elevated food costs, and shifting post-pandemic consumer behavior. Johnson rejected that proposal, framing the policy as a matter of racial and economic justice rather than purely labor economics.

The mayor’s invocation of slavery drew on a historical argument long advanced by labor advocacy groups such as One Fair Wage, which contend that tipping in the United States emerged in the Reconstruction era as a way for restaurants and railroads to avoid paying freed Black workers a direct wage. Scholars including Saru Jayaraman have documented how the practice became institutionalized in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which codified a separate, lower wage floor for tipped employees. Critics of Johnson’s framing counter that tipping’s origins are more complex — with antecedents in European aristocratic customs — and that invoking slavery inflames what they view as a straightforward debate over wage policy and small-business viability.

The political stakes for Johnson, a progressive Democrat elected in 2023 with strong backing from the Chicago Teachers Union and labor coalitions, are significant. His approval ratings have faced headwinds amid budget battles and public safety concerns, and the restaurant industry debate has become a flashpoint for broader questions about the city’s economic direction. Industry groups report that dozens of Chicago restaurants have closed in the past year, though economists note that isolating the wage policy’s specific impact is difficult given simultaneous pressures from rent, supply chains, and changing consumer habits. The City Council could attempt an override, which would require 34 of 50 aldermanic votes — a threshold proponents of the pause have not yet publicly demonstrated they can reach.