Nataki Rhodes has lived the tipped worker experience. Working for 15 years in the south suburbs of Chicago from anywhere to a barback to a waitress to a coat check, tips were a structural part of her and her son’s life depending on if the month would be hard or not. 

Able to keep her head above water, eventually enough was enough. Her experience resonates with thousands of tipped workers across Illinois.

“I’ve worked all of the positions in the restaurant industry and still was able to raise my son,” Rhodes said. “It was struggle but that’s why I’m in this fight to help the next generation that they don’t have to put up with sexual harassment, have to put up with wage theft.”

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Rhodes joined One Fair Wage, a nonprofit organization to end subminimum wage, at the footsteps of the capitol on March 18 pushing for living wages before tip. 

Sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez, D-Cicero, House Bill 2982 amends the minimum wage law that after July 1, 2027, an employer cannot pay an employee less than the minimum wage rate in the area and can be liable to fines of up to $1,500 per day for each violation. The bill was first filed on Feb. 6, 2025.

Hernandez previously sponsored House Bill 5345 which attempted to accomplish the same goal but did not make it through the posts.

The groups are advocating for the elimination of subminimum wage in the prairie state and follow the same path as Chicago for fair employment pay. 

In 2023, the Chicago City Council voted to approve “One Fair Wage,” 36 to 10, raising the minimum wage for tipped workers from $9 an hour to $15.80 before tips. The minimum is rising in increments of 8% for five years.

Outside of Chicago, Illinois tipped workers make $8.40 an hour compared to the state’s regular minimum wage of $15. Roughly 200,000 tipped workers, 63% women and 40% people of color are impacted by the subminimum wages, which create an instability of never knowing how much you could make in a week. 

“This is a new era,” Rhodes said. “It’s up to me to let the young women know there is help, there are resources.”

Currently, if an employee’s wages plus tips do not equal minimum wage, the employer cuts the difference to hit that $15 an hour point. 

Rhodes says she joined One Fair Wage because wage theft was the final straw for her.

“That’s what got me into standing up for my wages but that is typical of the restaurant owners not making up the wage when you don’t make it in tips,” Rhodes said. “Our opposition, the Illinois Restaurant Association, will say it’s just a few bad actors… No. If you check the labor statistics, it’s thousands of wage theft and lots go unreported.”

Opponents of the bill worry about the impact increasing wages will have for businesses and employees, and could result in more harm than help with jobs being reduced while prices go up during an era of inflation and tighter lines between red and black.

The Illinois Restaurant Association made a call-to-action March 14 about the bill saying, “This legislation is being sold as a raise for tipped workers, but it will do more harm than good, as it will fundamentally change the way all restaurants operate, hurting our smaller, family-run and minority-owned businesses the most.”

People also rallied to raise minimum wage for senior healthcare workers to $20 an hour.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, who is the sponsor of Senate Bill 120, addressed why she wants to raise the minimum wage for healthcare workers from $18 to $20 an hour.

“When my grandmother passed away you all want to know where my (grandmother’s) healthcare worker was? Sitting right with our family at my grandmother’s funeral,” Villanueva said. “She treated my grandmother like her grandmother and loved and cared and respected her. It is time for the state of Illinois to treat you all with love, care and respect.”

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted