No adult working full time in Chicago makes less than about $63,500 a year ($30.53 an hour). The Dignity Wage is a minimum wage set at 120% of the MIT Living Wage calculation for Chicago. It is phased in over four years. Because it is set by a formula rather than a fixed number, it updates on its own and never needs another political fight to raise it.
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PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
CONSTRUCT · FOUNDATION
Dignity Wage
If you work full time in Chicago, you can afford to live here.
Every full-time job in Chicago would pay at least $63,500 a year, $30.53 an hour in today's dollars. That's 120% of what it costs one adult to live in Cook County. It phases in over four years.
Chicago's minimum wage is $17.05. MIT's Living Wage Calculator says one adult with no children needs $25.44 an hour to live in Cook County. That $8.39 gap doesn't disappear. The worker covers it with a second job or debt, or moves somewhere cheaper. When they can't, taxpayers cover it through SNAP, Medicaid and housing help. When that happens to a full-time worker, the public is paying the rest of a wage the employer didn't pay.
So the new minimum wage is set at 120% of the living wage, because MIT's living wage leaves nothing for savings, a car repair or a slow month. It adjusts every May 1 with the cost of living, including rent, without a new City Council vote. There's one minimum wage for every adult worker: tips are extra on top, and nobody is paid less because of a disability. Workers under 18 start at $17.05.
It steps up over four years, and nobody's pay goes down along the way. It passes alongside the Chicago Open for Business Act, which makes small-business licensing faster and cheaper. It runs with the plan's $10-a-day childcare, and with its push to build more homes, because a raise only helps if rent doesn't eat it. And more money in workers' pockets means more spending at Chicago businesses: the policy estimates $90 to $140 million a year in added Chicago sales tax once it's fully phased in.
We already accept that when a restaurant's rent goes up, its prices go up. This applies the same logic to the people working there.
The raises don't stop at the new minimum. People earning from $30.53 up to $45.80 an hour (about $63,500 to $95,300 a year full time) should see raises too. When the lowest-paid jobs in Chicago pay $63,500, skilled workers earning near that have real leverage, and employers who want to keep them will pay for it. The Hamilton Project counts workers up to 150% of a new minimum wage as getting raises.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It doesn't cut anyone's pay. During the phase-in, the new minimum never drops below today's minimum wage.
It doesn't land on small businesses all at once. It steps up over four years, alongside faster, cheaper licensing.
It doesn't take tips away. Tips become extra, on top of the full wage.
It doesn't cost the city budget anything or create a new department. It's a wage law, enforced by the offices that already handle labor standards and business licensing.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
What does this do to my restaurant's costs? The Chicago Open for Business Act makes licensing faster and cheaper while the wage phases in over four years, with one online portal and a decision on any standard business license within 30 days.
Chicago Open for Business Act →
What about childcare? That's my biggest bill. Chicago Family Care for All offers childcare for $10 a day and 12 weeks of paid leave at 90% of pay.
Chicago Family Care for All →
What about drivers who aren't employees? Under Chicago Human Economy, app platforms with more than a set number of Chicago workers have to offer any worker who asks a job as an employee at the Dignity Wage, and Chicago Ride, a city rideshare, pays its drivers that wage.
Chicago Human Economy →
What if rent eats the raise? Housing Abundance lets enough homes get built again to keep rents affordable.
Housing Abundance →
Where do the better-paying jobs come from? The Chicago Trades Pipeline trains Chicagoans, with the unions, for careers rebuilding the city, with no college debt.
Chicago Trades Pipeline →
FISCAL IMPACT
Revenue Neutral
RENOVATION STEP
Construct · Foundation
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01
Where it ranks
OUR PRIORITIES
#14 of 33
HIGH
55 / 100
Daily life
Long-term future
Reach
Unlocks
PROMISING The Dignity Wage is a minimum wage for adults of $30.53 an hour today, set at 120% of what it costs one adult to live in Cook County and phased in over four years. It is a raise big enough to change daily life for low-wage workers. No US city has tried a floor this high, so the evidence is promising rather than proven.
When you'd feel it: Within Year 1.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
The number
The wage floor is 120% of what the MIT Living Wage Calculator says one adult with no children needs to live in Cook County. MIT's figure was $25.44 an hour in February 2026, so the floor today would be $30.53, about $63,500 a year full time.
It updates every year
Every May 1 the floor is recalculated against MIT's current figure. If the cost of living goes up, the floor goes up. If it goes down, the floor goes down. No new City Council vote is needed.
Four-year phase-in
The floor steps up over four years and reaches the full target in Year 4. The target is 120% of that year's MIT figure, not the 2026 number, so it isn't already out of date when it arrives. During the phase-in the floor is never lower than the current minimum wage, so nobody's pay goes down.
One floor for adults
There is no lower wage for tipped workers. Today Chicago lets restaurants pay tipped workers $12.96 an hour as long as tips bring them up to the full minimum; that tip credit goes away and tips become extra. There is also no lower wage for workers with disabilities and no employer-created "learner" rate.
Workers under 18
This is the one exception. Workers under 18 earn whichever is higher: a base of $17.05 an hour, Chicago's minimum wage today, which rises every year with the cost of living, or half the adult floor. Half of today's floor would be $15.27, so teens start at $17.05.
Enforcement
The city's existing Office of Labor Standards enforces it, along with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP), which licenses businesses. No new department is created.
Paired with licensing relief
It passes alongside the Chicago Open for Business Act, which makes small-business licensing faster and cheaper while the floor rises.
03
What it costs
Direct city cost
$0
Estimated added Chicago sales tax once fully phased in
$90–140M a year
Direct city cost
$0
This is a wage law, not a spending program. The sales-tax figure is an estimate from a model, with medium confidence, not a measurement, and it isn't counted in the city budget.
04
What it takes to make it happen
CITY COUNCIL
Pass the wage ordinance: the 120% formula, the May 1 adjustment, the phase-in steps, the end of the tip credit and the under-18 rate.
MAYOR AND OFFICE OF LABOR STANDARDS
Publish the new floor every May 1 and enforce it with the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.
SPRINGFIELD
Nothing is required. Chicago already sets its own minimum wage under home rule. A court challenge is possible, and the policy doesn't yet include a legal analysis of preemption, the question of whether state law overrides the city on this.
VOTERS
No referendum is needed.
05
Timeline
YEAR 1
The ordinance passes. The floor is the higher of today's minimum wage or the first phase-in step.
YEARS 2–3
The floor steps up again each year, recalculated against that year's MIT figure.
YEAR 4
The floor reaches 120% of that year's MIT living wage.
EVERY MAY 1 AFTER
The floor recalculates automatically.
06
Where it's worked
Raises above the floor
The Hamilton Project counts workers earning up to 150% of a new minimum wage as getting raises, because employers keep their pay scales in order. At the Dignity Wage, that would be everyone earning up to $45.80 an hour, about $95,300 a year full time. Studies of smaller increases found the clearest raises within about $3 of the new minimum; no city has raised its floor this far.
SOURCE: KEARNEY AND HARRIS, THE HAMILTON PROJECT, JANUARY 10, 2014 ↗
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Chicago today
Chicago's minimum wage rose to $17.05 on July 1, 2026. The wage for subsidized youth and transitional jobs programs now matches it. The tipped wage is $12.96 and stays frozen until July 1, 2028, after the City Council delayed the tip credit phase-out.
SOURCE: O'MALLEY & MADDEN, P.C., JULY 1, 2026 ↗
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Chicago and five other cities
UC Berkeley researchers studied the first six big cities to raise their minimum wage above $10, including Chicago. Food-service pay rose and they could not detect significant job losses.
SOURCE: UC BERKELEY INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT, SEPTEMBER 2018 ↗
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Seattle
A University of Washington team found Seattle's increases to $11 and $13 significantly cut hours, especially for less experienced workers. Other researchers dispute the size of the effect.
SOURCE: JARDIM ET AL., AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL: ECONOMIC POLICY, MAY 2022 ↗
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United States
The Congressional Budget Office estimated a $15 federal minimum would raise pay for at least 17 million people and lift 1.3 million out of poverty. Its median estimate was also 1.3 million jobs lost, within a range of about zero to 3.7 million.
SOURCE: NPR, REPORTING ON THE CBO ANALYSIS, JULY 8, 2019 ↗
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07
Sources
Kearney and Harris, The Hamilton Project, January 10, 2014
O'Malley & Madden, P.C., July 1, 2026
UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, September 2018
Jardim et al., American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2022
NPR, reporting on the CBO analysis, July 8, 2019
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