Illinois Black restaurant workers’ extremely low incomes can be traced to the subminimum wage for tipped workers. A direct legacy of slavery, the subminimum wage for tipped workers in Illinois is still just $9 an hour, compared to the statewide minimum wage for all other workers of $15.00 an hour,1 which results in Illionis tipped workers having a median income of just $13,598 a year, including tips. Tipped restaurant workers in Illinois are 67 percent women and 34 percent people of color. Ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers would positively impact the entire Illinois restaurant industry, which employs 458,000 workers statewide