Low-wage workers face long waits and high dismissal rates when filing stolen wage claims with the state labor department.
Employment and Labor

Chicago is the fastest shrinking major metro area
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Black and low-income residents continue to move out, but unlike other groups, a majority of African-Americans exiting the Chicago area didn’t have a job when they left.
Employment and Labor

Worker cooperatives face particular challenges in Illinois
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Worker-owned businesses, or co-ops, can create jobs with better wages and working conditions, but remain limited by state law and a lack of support in Illinois, advocates say.
Perspectives

Universal basic income could redress the high cost of underemployment in Chicago
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In a booming economy failing to provide enough living wage jobs, the city can more than afford to try Ald. Ameya Pawar’s proposal to relieve poverty.
Employment and Labor

Labor watchdog would give city’s worker protection laws some teeth
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The Office of Labor Standards would enforce Chicago’s minimum wage increase, guaranteed paid sick days, and guard against wage theft for vulnerable workers.
Perspectives

Fifty years later, what the Kerner report tells us about race in Chicago today
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Many of the city’s racial disparities in 2018 are all too similar to those of 1968, when a federal commission analyzed the causes of racial tensions in cities across the country.
Perspectives

Widening the tent for a multiracial labor movement
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Unions, which embraced black workers, must better address immigrant rights and the struggle against police violence.
Behind the Data
Cómo investigamos la recuperación de salarios en el Departamento Laboral de Illinois
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Un análisis de miles de denuncias de robo de salario muestra que hay poca probabilidad de que un trabajador recupere su sueldo en Illinois.

Cuando les roban el salario, pocos trabajadores de Illinois recuperan sus sueldos
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Los trabajadores que reportan robo de salarios ahora enfrentan periodos de espera más largos, un porcentaje mayor de despidos y más burocracia.
Behind the Data
How we investigated wage enforcement at the Illinois Department of Labor
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An analysis of thousands of wage complaints shows that workers face long odds of recouping pay in Illinois.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be

On $15 minimum wage hike, Rauner should listen to constituents
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A bill sitting on the governor’s desk would heed the call of Illinois voters, a majority of whom endorsed a minimum wage increase in a 2014 referendum.