Evanston City Council, on Jan. 8, voted 4-3 to table Councilmember Devon Reid’s proposed minimum wage increase to its March meeting. Despite tabling the proposal, City Council made adjustments on its path to a final ordinance.
The proposal would increase the minimum wage to $16.25 per hour at establishments with 100 or more employees and $15.50 with fewer than 100 employees. Evanston currently follows the Cook County minimum wage, which is expected to increase to $14.05 this July.
Reid also hopes to put a minimum wage for youth employees at $16.25 at companies with 100 or more employees and $15 for those with fewer than 100 employees. Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma brought forth a motion to eliminate the minimum wage increase for youth working at establishments with fewer than 100 employees to incentivize businesses to hire youth. Nieuwsma’s adjustment was approved 4-3 with council members Reid, Krissie Harris and Juan Geracaris opposing. Geracaris said he opposed the change because some youth are working jobs similar to adults and should be paid fairly.
“What I’m interested in is encouraging local businesses to hire young people and get them into the workforce, get them work skills and training,” Nieuwsma said.
Evanston’s minimum wage proposal also included an automatic wage increase by 2.5% or consumer price index, whichever is lower. The automatic increase was removed from the drafted ordinance with a 5-2 vote. Harris and Reid opposed the change.
The vote was tabled until March to allow the city’s economic development team to gather data on businesses in Evanston. City Council members wanted information regarding how many businesses are sitting near the 100 employee threshold.
Councilmember Thomas Suffredin expressed worries about creating unintended consequences, like a hiring freeze at small businesses to keep employee counts below the threshold. Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak said a survey is going out to businesses this month and information regarding business employee counts will be available later this year.
After the successful vote to amend the ordinance, Reid stormed out of the City Council chambers, leaving the meeting early. This is the second time Reid has abruptly left a meeting after his proposal saw delay or opposition in recent months. He exited the May 1 Human Services Committee meeting after his attempt to decriminalize psilocybin failed. A frustrated Reid excused himself from the meeting despite city staff saying the ordinance wasn’t ready.
“We’ve referenced the work that we’re doing in our committee meetings and I prefer that we would have finished already and had it completed,” Zalmezak said. “It’s not ready yet.”
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
