Study hits low wages for tipped workers

Chicago's "sub-minimum wage" for tipped workers is a "direct legacy of slavery" that has disproportionately impacted African Americans in general and black women in particular, according to a new study.

Tipped workers in the Chicago area - now paid $6.40-an-hour, plus tips - have twice the poverty rate of the rest of the regional workforce. And 63% of them are "workers of color" in casual restaurants, where tips are meager, the study shows.

Black tipped workers in Chicago have three times the poverty rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce - and the disparity rises to 3.5 times for African-American women.

The results underscore the urgency of including tipped workers in an ordinance raising Chicago's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021, four years sooner than mandated by state law, said Saru Jayaraman, director of the University of California at Berkeley's Food Labor Research Center.

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