Last June, our Village Board of Trustees said they would consider the issue of a living wage for Oak Park. More than six years ago, 60% of the Oak Park electorate endorsed a living wage ordinance for our village. Only four precincts opposed the referendum. We voted to pass an ordinance to pay living wages to those who were directly employed by our village, by contractors and sub-contractors hired by our village, and employees of organizations and businesses that are provided a substantial amount of money by our village.
We proposed an ordinance to provide a minimum of $15/hour. After a conversation with Village President Abu-Taleb, we re-worked our calculations to update for cost-of-living increases since 2010 and feel a more accurate figure would be $16.08/hour.
At the June meeting, our trustees approved sending the proposal to village staff for review and agreed to have a report returned by July 11. In August, supporters of the living wage ordinance (LWO) met with Village Manager Cara Pavlicek, who proposed crafting a plan to survey Oak Park businesses that would be directly impacted by such an ordinance. We suggested that employees as well as employers could provide germane information.
We contacted Manager Pavlicek in early November. She said she had submitted a report to the board but received no response. Ron Baiman, who wrote our proposed ordinance from a Brennan Center template, contacted Village Trustee Bob Tucker to ask about this. Trustee Tucker felt that the village was delaying any LWO work until the situation with the Illinois minimum wage became clear. He also agreed that there was no reason for Manager Pavlicek to hold off on implementing her plan.
However, Manager Pavlicek anticipates getting direction after the new year. And although she understands that the living wage and minimum wage conversations are different, the trustees expressed interest in seeing the outcome of the minimum wage discussions.
What is the link between the proposed minimum wage increases and a living wage? Is our board considering an increase to the minimum wage for Oak Park? If so, what figure are the trustees contemplating? To be clear, we do not consider anything less than $15/hour to be a living wage.
We urge the trustees to stop the endless delay and give Manager Pavlicek the go-ahead to proceed with her plan. The voters of Oak Park have been waiting for over six years. There have been multiple public hearings. There have been months of Community Relations Committee (CRC) deliberations that culminated in a comprehensive report and a 7-2 vote by the CRC to implement an LWO. There have been multiple testimonies in support at village board meetings.
Our board seems to embrace tackling development issues but suffers from a lack of will in implementing a voter-endorsed living wage ordinance. Across the country, the most recent election shows voters believe government should intervene in the fight against poverty wages.
Ron Baiman, Bill Barclay, Tom Broderick, Peter Jaffie-Notier, Julie Samuels, Gary Schwab, Sandra Shimon
Members of Greater Oak Park Democratic Socialists of America
