Skokie Reverses Course With Move To Retroactively Block Raises To Minimum Wage Workers

SKOKIE, IL — The Skokie Village Board will consider Thursday an ordinance to exempt employers in the village from minimum-wage increases and earned sick leave mandates that took effect on Saturday. After the Skokie Chamber of Commerce reversed course on the issue and a local car dealer threatened to withdraw his community sponsorships if the village didn't opt out, the board announced plans to pass an ordinance to retroactively block wage and benefit increases for Skokie workers with a first reading July 6 and a second and final reading July 17.

Dozens of Cook County municipalities have already voted to opt-out of the Cook County ordinances that passed last October. Skokie would become the only one so far to have waited until after the new rules took effect before retroactively deciding not to follow them. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Skokie — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

» Read: full text of Skokie Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge's memo and the proposed Skokie ordinances

Evanston Subaru owner Rob Paddor told the Skokie Review he recently warned village leaders he would reconsider his sponsorship of community events, like Wednesdays on the Green, if board members did not keep minimum wage at $8.25 per hour. Paddor said he currently pays more than minimum wage but he thinks it will create a burden for him at some point in the future.

Skokie Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Howard Meyer sent a message to members dated June 30. It said the Skokie Chamber was the first in the area to educate its members about the impact of the new rules on local businesses, with large employers supporting the ordinances in concept and smaller employers "not voicing their position."

According to Meyer, the Village of Skokie had previously supported the ordinances, suggesting they would help attract "quality workers to our community in a tight labor market." But as the July 1 deadline got closer, Chamber of Commerce members grew increasingly concerned.

"As a result of these growing concerns," Meyer said, "the Skokie Chamber of Commerce, myself and many of our 23 Board Members" now believe it would be more economically beneficial for the local business community to exempt businesses from having to pay $10 an hour. "We have spent the last several weeks aggressively lobbying our Village officials and our Cook County Board Representative. In our opinion the Village of Skokie should 'opt-out.'"

Skokie's Cook County Commissioner, Larry Suffredin, was the lead sponsor of the county ordinance raising minimum wage and a co-sponsor of the earned sick leave ordinance. He wrote an open letter to Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen asking him not to opt-out of the ordinances. Suffredin said the new rules were intended to correct the inequality between workers in Chicago and those just over the border in Skokie and to put pressure on Gov. Bruce Rauner to approve an increase to the statewide minimum wage, which has remained stagnant for more than 20 years.

Suffredin and several other state and federal elected officials representing Skokie signed on to a letter urging Van Dusen and Skokie trustees to "stand with the residents of Skokie" and refrain from taking "a negative action to block the raising of the minimum wage."

Supporters of a higher minimum wage and mandated sick leave plan to rally in front of Skokie Village Hall Thursday at 6:30 p.m., prior to the 8 p.m. meeting of Village Trustees.

Van Dusen has not responded to repeated questions on the matter. Skokie's director of marketing and communications, Ann Tennes, declined indefinitely a request for an interview on behalf of the village manager.

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