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* WGEM…
linois state lawmakers took another step Wednesday towards eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
The state House Labor and Commerce Committee passed a bill requiring employers pay tipped workers the full minimum wage. They’re currently only required to pay them $8.40 per hour plus tips in Illinois. The state’s full minimum wage is currently $14 per hour. Employers are required to make up the difference if tips don’t get their employees to at least $14 per hour.
Supporters argue the bill will clear up confusion in minimum wage laws and bring uniformity after Chicago passed similar legislation phasing out the tipped wage by 2028. […]
Opponents fear the bill would lead to job losses, especially for those whom it’s supposed to help.
* WCIA…
A bill in the Capitol aims to protect people from how companies store and collect their health data.
The proposal passed out of a House committee Wednesday, but the bill’s sponsor and advocates say they still have more work to do on it.
“We don’t want to do things that we don’t need to do and require businesses to go through hurdles they don’t need to but at the same time, this is really the wild wild west, there is very little regulation,” State Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) said during the committee hearing Wednesday. […]
The bill would require companies to have a health data privacy policy laying out what information they’re collecting, using, selling, and storing and why. They would also have to get people’s consent. […]
Opponents of the bill argue the definition of health data in the proposal is too broad.
State Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, offered up House Bill 2161 in committee Wednesday. […]
“House Bill 2161 adds family responsibilities to the list of protected categories in the Illinois Human Rights Act protection against harassment and retaliation,” he said.
Democratic state Rep. Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, said there needs to be clarity for the bill. […]
Guzzardi said the measure doesn’t protect anyone from being held accountable by their employer for poor job performance. The measure advanced out of committee. Guzzardi said he plans to bring back an amendment he hopes will allay concerns.
* Illinois PIRG…
Legislation to phase out fluorescent lighting (HB2363) passed through the Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday. If the bill becomes law, fluorescent lighting would be replaced over time with highly efficient LED bulbs, saving Illinois consumers more than $1.5 billion on utility bills, avoiding 2.2M metric tons of C02 emissions by cutting energy waste, and avoiding 419 pounds of mercury pollution by 2050, according to analysis by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
“Passing the Clean Lighting Act is a clear winner – it will save consumers money, cut energy waste, and remove a persistent neurotoxin from the Illinois waste stream,” said Illinois PIRG State Director Abe Scarr. “Members of the Illinois General Assembly should jump at the opportunity to save their constituents money and protect our environment.”
If the bill becomes law, Illinois would become the 9th state to pass similar policies. With a clarifying amendment filed at the hearing, there is no known opposition to the legislation.
The utility bill savings of replacing fluorescent lights with LEDs are clear and overwhelming: A typical small office could see $900 a year in savings and an average school could save $3,700 per year. […]
The bill has until April 19th to be passed by the full Illinois House for consideration in the Illinois Senate.
* The Coalition for Prescription Drug Affordability…
This morning, President Biden made an announcement, echoing previous remarks in his State of the Union address, about his proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate prices on up to 50 drugs annually. This proposal would create an added savings of $200 billion on top of the current projection of $160 billion over the next ten years.
The Illinois General Assembly is currently considering HB 4472, which would leverage federal drug price negotiations to benefit all Illinoisans. The bill would give Illinois a mechanism to extend Medicare-negotiated drug prices for all Illinoisans and require a pass-through of those savings to consumers. Without such a mechanism, more than 6.8 million Illinoisans on commercial insurance would not see the benefits of drug price negotiations through lower prescription co-pays and insurance premium costs.
HB4472 also allows for additional drugs to be considered for upper payment limits, extending even greater relief for seniors grappling with prescription drug costs. 90% of seniors regularly rely on prescription medication.
“President Biden is fighting to lower the out-of-control cost of prescription drugs that keeps people up at night,” said Julie Sampson, Executive Director of Citizen Action/Illinois. “The Illinois General Assembly has an opportunity to leverage federal drug price negotiations and bring those savings home for all Illinoisans by passing HB 4472.”
* Rep. Jed Davis…
Yesterday, House Bill 4350, filed by State Representative Jed Davis (R-Yorkville) passed the Adoption & Child Welfare Committee with a unanimous vote of 14-0.
“I am thrilled the Child Abuse Notice Act passed committee yesterday,” said Rep. Davis. “This act will require specific establishments to post informational signs targeting minors caught in child abuse and trafficking, providing pathways for immediate help.”
Establishments with the highest likelihood of being frequented by children being abused or trafficked, such as bus stations, emergency rooms, and hotels will be required to post these signs. Rep. Davis worked with the Illinois State Police when identifying these locations.
Rep. Davis continued, “Children who are in these horrendous situations may not know how to get help. Many of them feel alone and trapped, and these signs will provide victims a way out.”
“I also want to thank Colleen Murphy who testified on behalf of this legislation. Colleen is a constituent and the founder of the national movement, My Body Tells The Truth (MBTTT). She brought the idea for this legislation to my office, and I appreciate her continued determination to protect children in Illinois.”
This bill is one of five bills included in the Protecting Kids legislative package filed by Representative Davis.
* KHQA…
In the push to increase wages, Direct Support Professionals (DSP) are fighting for a wage increase for their work and care across Illinois. Senate Bill 3764 aims to help caregivers get the pay they believe they deserve. […]
On Wednesday the Illinois Senate Appropriations – Health and Human Services Committee held a hearing to discuss this legislation.
With unfilled positions, closed group homes, excessive overtime, and thousands of Illinoisans stuck on the waitlist for services and care, DSP caregivers are seeking a $3 an hour wage increase for their work and care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. […]
At the committee hearing, it was shared with the public that this isn’t the first time the state has improved funding over the years for this community. However minimum wage increases have weakened the impact of wage increases for the developmentally disabled community.
* WAND…
Illinois lawmakers know there were 109 cardiac events involving Illinois students under 18 during 2022. School districts may soon be required to develop cardiac emergency response plans to help address the growing issue.
The Illinois General Assembly has previously passed plans to require every school to have AEDs available on school property. However, House Bill 5394 would require school districts to work with local paramedics to create a plan in case there is a cardiac event. […]
Moline High School student Maddox McCubbin became an advocate for this change after he suffered from a sudden cardiac arrest last year. He was on the ground of his study hall room without oxygen for three minutes until the school nurse arrived and was able to quickly provide CPR. […]
House Bill 5394 passed unanimously out of the House Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies Committee. The plan now moves to the House floor for further consideration.
* SJ-R…
A bill proposed by Peoria state Sen. Dave Koehler aimed at lowering carbon emissions into the atmosphere could result in higher gas prices, opponents to the legislation say.
Koehler, who proposed SB 1556 — also known as the Clean Transport Standard — says any fears that his bill would raise gas prices is a “scare tactic” being used by its opponents and the legislation is something that needs to happen now to tackle climate change. […]
Koehler and his team are currently working on another amendment for the bill. He said they hope to have it done within a month but added this is something he wants to “get done right, not fast.” If the bill has to wait until a later legislative session to become law, Koehler said that is a satisfactory outcome.
The coming amendment is ironing out details on how the credit system works, among other things, at the request of some agriculture groups, Koehler said.
posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 9:21 am
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Re: a bill requiring employers pay tipped workers the full minimum wage.
If I’m reading that correctly, this will remove the conditional minimum of $8.40+tips, and set it to a flat $14. Which then makes obsolete the current requirement for employers to make up any difference between $8.40 and $14 if tips fell short.
At the end of the day, the employer *should* be paying out the exact same amount of money - if they are meeting the second requirement to make up the shortfall. The labor cost would be the same, and there would be less paperwork.
–Opponents fear the bill would lead to job losses–
The only way this could be a valid outcome, is if the employers are finding legal or illegal ways to not make up that difference to meet the current $14 minimum requirement when adding hourly+tips.
Say, for example, the employer has a virtual set of books and can use pooled tips or actual tips to determine what wage difference needs to be made up. If the employee individually has a great tip pushing them over 14, the employer owes nothing. If the employee gets stiffed all shift long and gets barely anything, then the larger pooled tips amount is used to minimize the amount the employer needs to be made up.
This bill seems designed to address some unspoken shenanigans going on, as on paper it shouldn’t be any different in cost than the existing law.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 10:13 am
The portion of the tip wage debate I have never seen discussed:
Why, as a customer, does the burden of paying employees fall on me?
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 10:35 am
Re: Tipped Wage
====Opponents fear the bill would lead to job losses ===
Isn’t this what you call market mechanisms?
Dear classical and neoclassical economists. Adam Smith (1776) advocated for a minimal, living wage for workers. Read the book.
Economies are not efficient when workers are treated as chattel. When workers are exploited and abused in the name of profiteering under capitalism, socialism arises in the form of taxes and social services to take care of the abused.
Read the book.
Minimum wage is not the problem. Restaurants can afford it just as all other businesses must do. Restaurants have simply become accustomed to profiting off the labor of wait staff instead of profiting off the products they sell in competitive markets for the goods they sell. Passing on the costs of labor to tax payers as well as customers is not only unethical, it is contrary to the theories of capitalism.
Adam Smith advocated for a minimum wage. Its called capitalism 101.
Comment by H-W Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 10:56 am
@H-W, the way I understand it, servers are currently paid $8 an hour by their employer. They are then allowed to collect tips from customers.
If the amount of tips they make equals the equivalent of $14 or more, the employer is only liable to pay $8 of the $14 an hour out of their pocket. If the tips don’t equal at least $14, the employer only then has to make up any difference.
Under the new bill being proposed, employers would be required to pay $14 out of their pocket regardless of how much the server makes in tips.
I think this is where the job loss claims come in. Although that seems to be the default response every time legislation they don’t like is introduced.
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 12:00 pm
@ Former Downstater
I understand the current process by which wait staff get paid. I simply oppose it on the grounds that it violates human dignity.
The employer benefits from “the generosity” of customers if they do not have to pay beyond $8.40 for some of their employees.
The wait staff and the employer benefits from “the generosity” of customers if the wait staff make more than $14.00 per hour when tips are included in those labor costs.
The cooks do not. The dishwashers do not. Other workers do not. Just the wait staff (because customers feel obligated to negate the wage abuse of employers), and the employers benefit.
My broader argument is that it is a violation of capitalism to pass on labor costs to taxpayers (thereby creating the needs for social welfare programs to offset the unwillingness of employers in one sector to operate according to the same rules all other employers are compelled to abide by.
Comment by H-W Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 12:39 pm
A great many restaurants employ a wide range of shenanigans now under current law to avoid paying their employees the $14 per hour they are legally owed. Let me say it again: tipped employees are supposed to be paid $14 per hour now. If an employee’s tips do not bring the employee to $14 per hour of work, the employer is supposed to make up the difference.
I would argue that opponents of this policy change doth protest too much. This policy has been implemented in California, Washington, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Montana. The sky did not fall in the above named statues. Illinois House members, don’t be fooled!
Comment by Homer Simpson's Brain Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:02 pm
= Adam Smith advocated for a minimum wage. Its called capitalism 101=
According to whom? Certainly not Thomas Sowell, or Milton Friedman
Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:10 pm
I meant states, not statues in my comment at 1:02 pm.
Comment by Homer Simpson's Brain Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:11 pm
Clean Lighting Act is noble in a few ways, but misses the mark in another way.
The current level of pollution from these non-native types of light (aka nnemf) —phone/tv/computer screens, fluorescent, LED, etc — are all harmful to humans at the levels our society is currently consuming them.
The studies are there to prove this. They cause all kinds of body issues. There was actually a Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology awarded, in 1903, to Niels Finsen for the effects of light on the human body. We have gone the wrong direction on all this in the last 20yrs.
It’s my hope that a few of you will research this and spread the word. Go outside. Get out from under the institutional lights for at least part of the day. Turn off the screens. Watch sunrise and sunset.
Maybe the Democrats can mandate more outside time for human beings. You’d be surprised at how much happier and productive people would be.
Comment by 40,000 ft Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:12 pm
- According to whom? -
Adam Smith wrote stuff down, try reading it.
Comment by Excitable Boy Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:33 pm
@H-W, I 100% agree with all your points.
I’ve complained many times, on this site and elsewhere, about how much I hate the fact the tipping system puts the burden of paying employees on the customer.
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:34 pm
Regarding HB 4472, I do not agree with the approach the bill takes. Illinois needs to take the approach our Canadian friends in Saskatchewan took to give their citizens universal health care. That is, we need to disentangle state policy from federal policy here and go our own way.
It’s frankly embarrassing that Illinois is rarely a leader these days when it comes to policy.
Here’s my proposal: Illinois will do price negotiations for ALL drugs prescribed in this state, and do it for ALL people. Illinois can do it for commercial insurance patients and Medicaid patients through a state plan waiver. Medicare and VA, I’m not to sure about. And let’s not forget the uninsured, they need to take prescription drugs too. My plan would also include a “most favored nation” clause so Illinois receives the lowest prices available for our citizens.
Illinois, let’s show the country how it’s done just like Saskatchewan did for Canada.
Comment by Homer Simpson's Brain Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 1:38 pm
Talked with a restaurant owner in AZ a few years back. She was from Sweden and said she paid her staff better than minimum wage and even put on the menu that tips were not required but always appreciated. She also ensured her staff had health insurance and shut for the entire month of August with her employees being paid during this time. She said it helped ensure she had low turnover, happy employees and as a result happy customers. She built this cost into how she priced food items on the menu. She grew up with this model in Sweden.
Comment by illinifan Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 2:27 pm
=== Regarding HB 4472, I do not agree with the approach the bill takes. Illinois needs to take the approach our Canadian friends in Saskatchewan took to give their citizens universal health care. ===
Universal health care meaning that every Illinois resident is required to use public health care provided by the State of Illinois as opposed to their own health insurance?
Comment by Hannibal Lecter Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 2:39 pm
@Former Downstater
Exactly. Diners and waitstaff have always subsidized the restaurant industry.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 2:55 pm
Me @ 2:55 pm
Comment by Politix Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 2:56 pm
@ Donnie Elgin
=== Certainly not Thomas Sowell, or Milton Friedman ===
Dear Donnie, and whom pray tell did Sowell and Friedman read with regard to Capitalism?
Read Smith. Then discuss.
Comment by H-W Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 3:07 pm
Has anyone actually spoken with a server as to whether they would like this change? In college I worked as a server and my wage+tips was way above minimum wage. I tip 20% - 25% and don’t consider it anything other than part of the cost of going out to eat, along with the bill and parking if any. Perhaps the best course of action is to see how it worked out in other states, I’ve read mixed reviews.
Comment by EP1082 Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 3:21 pm
The clean lighting act leaves needs more information about the costs. Do the LEDs need new fixtures? Usually they would need installations by electricians, which would need to be figured in.
If it really will save that much, schools will put them in on their own, they would not need the state to pass a law requiring them to do so. Does the Clean Lighting Act say who would pay for the new LED lights? The school districts or the state? Can they get it done for free on a federal grant of some kind? Put this new law on hold for now for a total cost study, and also wait for improved quality of the lights. They need to NOT produce eye strain and other bad side effects that have been mentioned by 40,000ft @ 1:12.
Comment by Dupage Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 3:50 pm
Hannibal Lecter, I brought up the Canadian example to point out that Saskatchewan decided to be independent of Canadian federal health policy when the province implemented universal health care. In the same vein, I feel Illinois should not merely follow federal policy, but instead implement a broad, universal drug price negotiation policy.
In regards to universal health care, the model I envision would work best in Illinois is universal health insurance coverage where you are free to use any provider in the state with zero cost to the insured at the point of use. Of course, this would be paid by the general revenue fund. Vermont I believe tried to go this route, but balked at the revenue required to implement universal health insurance coverage.
So to answer your question, no I don’t mean universal health care like the NHS from the UK where health care is done by the state with public doctors and hospitals. More like the French model. Or the model I’ve argued for.
Comment by Homer Simpson's Brain Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 5:20 pm
If the tipped minimum wage is eliminated, in principle, menu prices would go up but we customers wouldn’t need to tip as much so it would be a wash but with more predictability for waitstaff. But would this really happen? Or would customers simultaneously feel obliged to tip at the usual rate while also eating out less often because of the menu price hikes, or going more often to “fast casual” restaurants without tipping? It seems likely we end up with unintended consequences.
Comment by Jane Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 7:37 pm
Hannibal Lecter, that is one way to do it, ala the UK’s system. I would prefer the French system, where everyone is given health insurance by the state and the actual delivery of care is a mix of public and private healthcare providers. As an FYI, the State of Illinois has one public hospital that it runs through the University of Illinois.
Comment by Homer Simpson's Brain Thursday, Apr 4, 24 @ 8:41 pm