Protect hospitality workers’ income and keep our local businesses open.

Send an email to your legislators urging them to protect your local businesses and oppose HB 2982, which would eliminate the tip credit for workers. This would fundamentally alter the way restaurants, bars, breweries, hotels, and other businesses who use the tip credit pay their employees, causing many to cut shifts or tipped staff positions, raise prices, or permanently close.

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As your constituent and someone who wants to protect Illinois businesses and workers, I encourage you to reject HB 2982, the flawed proposal to eliminate the tip credit entirely by 2027. A recent amendment to HB 2982 goes even further, offering a $1.50 tax credit per hour per employee for employers who do not take the tip credit before it is eliminated. This would have devastating economic repercussions for the state.
 
The 120,000 servers and bartenders in Illinois work a total of approximately 180 million hours per year. If every restaurant took the $1.50 tax credit, the state would lose $270 million in taxes per year at a time when we should be trying to raise revenue.
 
Employers who use the tip credit are already required by law to pay the difference if the tipped wage and their tips don’t add up to at least minimum wage. In fact, tipped workers have higher earning potential in the current system than they would if the tip credit were eliminated. According to National Restaurant Association Research, the median tipped restaurant worker in Illinois currently earns $28.48 per hour, far above current minimum wage. This is why 87% of Illinois tipped restaurant employees agree that the current system works and does not need to be changed.
 
Our local businesses are already facing significant economic challenges and would bear the brunt of this policy. Restaurants, bars, breweries, hotels, and other businesses who use the tip credit would be forced to pass the increased cost on to consumers to try to make ends meet, and many would still need to make severe cutbacks or potentially close. 
 
Eliminating the tip credit is a lose-lose situation that will lead to increased costs for both businesses and consumers, less take-home pay for workers, and a significant loss in tax revenue for the state. Illinois residents deserve better.

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Position Statement on Illinois Hospitality Businesses

Eliminating the tip credit would fundamentally change longstanding rules for how tipped employees in Illinois are paid, putting at risk employee earning potential and significantly raising costs for business owners. Business in Illinois already faces a challenging economic landscape. Now is not the time to pile additional burdens on our local and family-run businesses. Instead, let’s work together to do the right thing to protect Illinois businesses!

Protect Illinois Hospitality

Keep Your Local Businesses Open & Protect The Earning Potential of Hospitality Employees

Here are the simple facts:

The median tipped restaurant employee in Illinois makes more than $28/hour compared to the state minimum wage of $14/hour.
Current laws already require tipped employees to earn at least the minimum wage and if for any reason they don’t, the business owners must make up the difference for every hour worked. No employee can make under the state’s minimum wage – it’s the law.
Business owners will experience increased labor costs which in other markets have resulted in higher prices, decreasing staff hours or eliminating positions, and even closing their doors.
Six out of the seven states that have eliminated the tip credit have some of the lowest tip percentages in the country, with California and Washington at the bottom of the list.

Protect hospitality workers’ income and keep our local businesses open.

Position Statement on Illinois Hospitality Businesses

Protect Illinois Hospitality

Let’s Protect The Illinois Hospitality Industry For Everyone.