CITY HALL — The City Council on Wednesday approved a measure that would require businesses to give workers paid sick leave.
Sponsored by Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), the measure allows workers to accrue paid sick leave at a rate of an hour for every 40 worked, or one day for every eight weeks and a full week for 40 weeks. The maximum is five days a year.
Pawar called it "a baseline of some level of decency" for 460,000 workers in the city who currently risk pay or employment if they can't work.
It also applies to part-time workers who put in 80 hours over four months.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who supported the proposal, emphasized, "It's not something you get, it's something you earn."
The proposal has been considered for years, with those like Ald. Toni Foulkes (16th) insisting it was essential for food-service workers who can readily spread illness. The Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago, cheered its passage at the City Council.
Yet it was also opposed by restaurant interests, including Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), owner of the Ann Sather restaurants, who said rising employee costs including the Affordable Care Act were throwing the business plans for many restaurants out of balance.
Tunney actually joined Wednesday in a unanimous vote approving sick leave, but business interests remained unconvinced.
"Employers are at a tipping point," said Tanya Triche, vice president and general counsel of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. "We cannot provide the jobs, pay the wages and invest in local communities while City Hall layers on one cost mandate after another."
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Theresa Mintle echoed that, calling the measure "another cost neighborhood businesses will have to absorb at a time when they can least afford it."
The measure, which exempts trade workers covered by other agreements, takes effect July 1, 2017.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
