Employees at Chicago businesses will soon be guaranteed twice as many days off as workers in the rest of Illinois, under an expanded paid leave policy approved by the City Council on Thursday.
Mayor Brandon Johnson landed his latest progressive victory a couple of days later than expected after a parliamentary maneuver by Council opponents delayed a vote originally set for Tuesday, but the measure’s support was scarcely in doubt despite vehement opposition in the city’s business community.
The Council voted 36-12 in favor of the ordinance that requires Chicago businesses to give their workers 10 days off per year beginning Jan. 1, including five sick days and five vacation days.
That goes beyond the statewide paid leave policy taking effect next year that requires businesses to provide five days of paid leave.
The city will also require companies with 100 or more workers to pay out up to seven days of unused time when employees leave their jobs. There’s a two-year phase-in for companies with 51 to 100 employees to pay out departing workers for unused time, while companies with 50 or fewer employees will be exempt from the payouts.
“If COVID taught us anything, it’s that workers need days off. This can be a life or death issue,” said Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development, who championed the measure.
“This is about the workers in our great city. Every neighborhood group, every workers’ rights group is 100% in support of this ordinance.”
Johnson and his progressive Council allies originally pushed for city businesses to provide 15 days off, but settled on 10 after arduous negotiations with business, retail and restaurant trade groups who remain deeply opposed to the costly mandate.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) — who on Tuesday wielded the parliamentary maneuver along with Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) to delay the vote — moved to amend the ordinance Thursday to give employers a 30-day window to address an alleged violation before a worker could file a lawsuit. Reilly said he’s fielded “frantic phone calls” from entrepreneurs worried about a potential “jackpot of litigation.”
Council members voted to table that amendment, which included other tweaks.
“The business community can only absorb so much at once,” Reilly said before the vote. “We’re really piling on the business community right now. … Well-intended ordinances can have really negative consequences.”
Opponent Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said “we have to protect workers, yes. But we also have to protect the businesses who hire the workers.
“We’re constantly pounding business over the head when businesses are still trying to recover from COVID,” Beale said. “It is not this body’s responsibility to constantly do the bidding of special interests.”
Ugo Okere, policy director for the Raise the Floor Alliance — one of the groups that pushed for the ordinance — argued during public comment before the vote that opponents were doing the bidding of business leaders.
“We have moved significantly from our original proposal,” Okere said. “The defenders of business remain opposed. … Their reason is that it’s too much too soon. Is it too much to give workers the ability to live a life worth living?”
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) acknowledged ”there’s going to be an impact and a change period in all this,” but she said she was pleased with concessions in the ordinance.
“We have businesses that already take care of their employees and have amazing time off, but it’s not everybody. And this is something that folks should have,” Lee said.
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said she was a reluctant “yes” as a result of concessions made at the behest of Black Caucus members concerned about the burden on small businesses. But she still held reservations.
“I want to work to ensure that employees get time off, but the ‘time off’ issue is nonexistent if we enact policies that force businesses to close,” Dowell said, later adding that she was confident “modifications” could be made down the line.
The paid leave measure puts another progressive trophy on the wall for Johnson less than six months after he took office.
Last month, he and his Council allies passed an ordinance that promises to phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers by 2028.
And earlier this week, the Council advanced another key item on Johnson’s agenda by placing a referendum question on next March’s primary election ballot asking voters whether the city should raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end property sales to address homelessness.