Reclaim Northwest Suburbs Rally to Increase Minimum Wage in Arlington Heights Sept 4
Reclaim Northwest Suburbs is rallying to raise the minimum wage for working families in Arlington Heights from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, at the Arlington Heights Village Hall, 33 S. Arlington Heights Road, then will proceed to the village board meeting at 8 p.m.
The Arlington Heights Village Board voted in June 2017 to opt-out of the Cook County Minimum Wage Ordinance, that would have raised the minimum wage and provided sick leave for working families. The purpose of the rally is to encourage Arlington Heights to re-introduce the ordinance and vote to opt in. Attendees who would like to address the board are allotted three minutes.
The ordinance, which took effect July 1, 2017, made the new minimum wage in Cook County $10 an hour, then increased it to $11 an hour this past July 2018; and will raise it to $12 an hour in 2019 and $13 an hour in 2020. It also mandated businesses to pay employees for up to five paid sick days a year. The suburbs had the option to opt-out of the ordinance; the hope is that Arlington Heights will follow suit with communities such as Wilmette and Willow Springs who reversed their prior actions to opt out of the ordinance.
The Arlington Heights Board voted to opt out even with strong local support for an increase in minimum wage. In recent non-binding referendums, 65 percent of Arlington Heights voters supported a higher state minimum wage and 75 percent favored paid sick days.
The issues of increasing the minimum wage and five paid sick days a year will again be a non-binding referendum on the ballot in the Nov. 6, 2018 election.
There is great public support on both sides of the aisle in poll after poll for both of these issues. In a Daily Herald article at the time, Arlington Heights village board trustees who voted to not opt out of the ordinance said "they were listening to the will of constituents who flooded their email inboxes and phone lines." The village board meeting the night of the decision was packed with supporters of the minimum wage increase, far outweighing the numbers of those there in favor of opting out.
Many suburban families are struggling making ends meet with the current Illinois minimum wage of $8.25. Stagnating or decreasing wages have played a major role in the dramatic rise in suburban poverty. The Social IMPACT Research Center reports that in the 2000s, wages in nearly all industries in the suburbs decreased and decreased far more than in Chicago. The report also states that the poverty rate held steady in Chicago from 1990 to 2011, but increased 57 percent in the suburbs.
Raising the minimum wage has been proven to address these issues. The Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois Project for Middle Class Renewal recently released research that found the 2014 Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance was "intended to increase earnings for low-income workers and combat income inequality, and that it's working." illinoisupdate.com.
Chicago businesses as well as employees have fared well due to the minimum wage increase. According to a 2017 study by the Chicago Chamber of Commerce in a Crain's editorial, since the minimum wage increase began, "small businesses in Chicago are flourishing. Not only are more and more small businesses opening their doors, the chamber found small-business owners in the city are increasingly optimistic about the future and prospects for growth."
Join Reclaim Northwest Suburbs this Tuesday, Sept. 4, so that Arlington Heights residents have the opportunity for this kind of positive change for its employees and businesses. Visit www.meetup.com/Reclaim-NW-Suburbs/.
Reclaim Chicago and its chapters throughout the Chicago area are supported by The People's Lobby and National Nurses United. The People's Lobby organizes people at the grassroots on issues ranging from austerity and budgets to mass incarceration, good jobs, climate change and campaign finance reform. National Nurses United, with 6,500 registered nurses in Illinois and close to 185,000 members across the country, is the largest union and professional association of RNs in U.S. history.