Mayor Brandon Johnson’s major paid leave package for Chicago workers moved to the cusp of approval Thursday after his City Council allies made some concessions that still didn’t allay the concerns of business owners who say the changes will be too costly.
The City Council Workforce Development Committee approved a new version of the mayor’s plan that lowers the maximum number of days off businesses would be required to provide employees from 15 to 10 and exempts small businesses from having to pay out unused paid time off.
A prior version of the package stalled in the committee earlier this week, as a group of Black aldermen balked at supporting paid leave requirements they worried small businesses in their wards couldn’t afford. With the changes, it passed 13-2 Thursday and will head to the full City Council for consideration next week, when it seems likely to pass.
At a news conference after the committee meeting with the city’s major unions and a coalition of workers groups, Bob Reiter, the head of the Chicago Federation of Labor, said the change would expand on the long-sought paid sick leave mandate the council passed six years ago and show Chicago government recognizes the “dignity of work.”
Though leave policies are covered in many existing union contracts, Reiter said the changes will raise the floor for nonunion and union employees in collective bargaining.
But business leaders said the watered-down paid leave plan will nonetheless be too expensive.
In a statement, a coalition of business groups — including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Restaurant Association, the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and smaller chambers based in the Little Village, Pilsen and Englewood neighborhoods — said “labor groups refused to compromise meaningfully, with aldermen now set to vote on a policy that will devastate the very businesses they have been trying to attract to their communities.”
“With Chicago on the verge of adopting the most complicated and expensive form of paid leave in the country, businesses of every size and sector will be left with no choice but to take their operations — and jobs — elsewhere,” their joint statement said.
Business groups also fretted about the cumulative cost of the expanded leave requirement on top of other top Johnson priorities: increased base wages for tipped employees and a potential new tax on property sales.
A vote on the proposal was delayed Monday after members of the City Council’s Black Caucus and business groups pushed back. Black aldermen said they were concerned about the proposal’s impact on small business owners, while business interests were concerned about the immediate cost of providing payouts for exiting employees and potential lawsuits for violations.
Black Caucus Chair Stephanie Coleman, 16th, ultimately voted in favor on Thursday and said she hoped the delay served as a lesson that the voices of Black business owners could “never again” be excluded from future negotiations. She said Black restaurateurs and business owners were brought into the conversation at the last minute.
Faced with Black aldermen’s concerns, Johnson on Wednesday said he would continue negotiating with all interested parties, but that he would not compromise his values.
“The business community is at the table because I want to hear from them as far as being able to provide the type of collaborative support that the people of Chicago elected me to do,” he said. “Governing on my values is what I said I would do and I’m doing … I don’t negotiate my values, but I said we can negotiate the details around our values.”
The ordinance would allow workers to accrue up to five days of sick time and five days of paid time off. One hour for each would be accrued for every 35 hours worked. Workers could roll over up to 10 days of sick time annually and two days of PTO each year.
Small employers — those with 50 employees or less — would not be required to pay out unused PTO when a worker left. Medium employers (51-100 employees) would have an extra year to ramp up to that payout requirement. The “private right of action” — or the ability for employees to sue their employer for violations — would be delayed until Jan. 1, 2025.
Johnson allies said paid time off was critical for families struggling to make ends meet, and would improve worker retention. Moreover, they pointed to a looming change to state law they said put Chicago at risk of falling behind on worker benefits: Starting Jan. 1, city workers would have access to five sick days, but the rest of the state would offer five days off for any reason.
“We definitely don’t want workers in the city of Chicago to not have the same rights and benefits as workers in other major American cities,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, 35th, said.
