Wilmette Adopts Higher Minimum Wage, Reversing Last Year's Vote

WILMETTE, IL — It was after midnight Tuesday night when the Wilmette Village Board voted to adopt Cook County's higher minimum wage, so the vote came precisely a year to the day after village trustees voted the opposite way on the same issue. The second vote on the subject followed a year of debate and study in the affluent village, where two of three people surveyed supported the higher wages but a majority of business owners oppose it.

Trustees voted 5-2 to approve opting into the county's higher minimum wage requirements and reverse their vote from a year ago. Trustees Kathy Dodd, Joel Kurzman, George Pearce, Senta Punkett and Julie Wolf voted in favor of reversing the board's decision from a year ago. Village President Bob Bielinski and trustee Daniel Sullivan voted against the measure.

The board also voted 6-1 against adopting the Cook County Earned Sick Leave Ordinance, with all but Kurzman voting to stay opted out of the mandate at its June 26 meeting.

Last year, Wilmette trustees voted 6-1 against following the minimum wage ordinance and 5-2 against the sick leave rules. Trustee Kurzman voted to join the county rules in both cases, and former trustee Steve Leonard joined him to vote in favor of adopting the sick leave rules on June 27, 2017.

The minimum wage ordinance adopted by the Cook County Board in 2016 raised the minimum hourly wage to $10 on July 1, 2017. Independent contractors, government employees, workers in apprentice and training programs, seasonal employees and those under 18 are all exempt from the law.

One in five people working in Wilmette earn less than $1,250 a month, according to a report commissioned after trustees voted against following new Cook County labor regulations when they took effect last summer. That equates to $15,000 a year for employees in a town with a median annual household income of nearly $140,000.

Minimum wages for qualified workers in suburbs that have not opted out will rise to $11 per hour on July 1, with annual increases of $1 per hour scheduled until 2020. (Those working for minimum wage in Chicago will get a raise to $12 an hour next month.)

After 2020, hourly wages are due to rise along with inflation. Cook County's "earned sick leave" ordinance provides that employees accrue an hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked. It does not apply to businesses that already offer paid time off.

The Wilmette board decided to add some qualifiers to its ordinance opting into the county wage rules. The change will not take effect until Oct. 1, 2018 and would be invalidated if any one of several things were to occur, according to amendments adopted by the board.

Sunset provisions in Wilmette's ordinance opting in to Cook County's minimum wage law:

• If Illinois increases the statewide minimum wage, Wilmette would change to the new state minimum.
• If Cook County makes any changes to the ordinance, Wilmette would revert to the state minimum of $8.25.
• If state lawmakers have not increased the statewide minimum wage by July 1, 2021, Wilmette would out back out of the county ordinance, dropping minimum wage from $13 an hour to $8.25 an hour.

Watch the Wilmette Village Board's June 26, 2018 discussion and vote on opting into Cook County's minimum wage and sick leave mandates:

READ MORE: Wilmette Board Sets Vote To Reconsider Cook County Minimum Wage »

All municipalities with Home Rule authority had the option of passing an ordinance to ignore the county labor law. More than 80 towns in Cook County chose to opt out of the requirements.

However, several North Shore communities surrounding Wilmette have been following the ordinance for the past year, including Evanston, Skokie, Winnetka, Glencoe, Kenilworth and Northfield.

Elected officials in Glenview and Northbrook decided against higher wages for workers in their communities. Unlike the Wilmette board, they did not assemble a working group and commission a 436-page report to study the issue.

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