City Council votes 44-5 to raise Chicago’s minimum wage

(Chicago)  The aldermen have voted 44-5 to approve Mayor Emanuel's proposal to raise Chicago's minimum wage to $10 an hour in July and then up in stages to $13 an hour in 2019.

With their own election days only 12 weeks away, the aldermen gave the mayor a landslide for the minimum wage.  During debate, Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. played class warfare, “Just like these big corporate CEOs getting hundred thousand dollar, two hundred thousand dollar bonuses or whatever the case may be, we need to give the little people in the city of Chicago a bonus too.”

But restaurateur Alderman Tom Tunney warned raising the wage eventually to $13 is a job killer, “When there is no company, there is no job.”

Up next, this move may be challenged in court because the legal authority of the city to do this is debatable.  

Bill Cameron, 89 WLS News