Minimum Wage For Chicago Window Washers

Carlos Perez, center, a lead organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 1, leads chants with window washers and their supporters during a rally for better wages June 29, 2015, in Chicago. Window washers "overwhelmingly" ratified a three-year labor contract July 22, 2015, that includes a pay raise.

Window washers ratify 3-year agreement: Window washers "overwhelmingly" ratified a three-year labor contract that would raise wages by up to 16 percent over the life of the agreement, the union said Wednesday. "It's a good step but it's not the end," said Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1.

Balanoff said the agreement, which covers 235 window washers, was reached last week and averted a strike. The union negotiated with Corporate Cleaning Services and seven other companies that bargained together in a coalition.

The workers, who now make from $11.15 to $17.65 per hour, will earn as much as $20.50 by the end of the contract, Balanoff said. The contract also calls for employers to pay 60 percent of health care insurance premiums, rather than a set amount, meaning companies will share cost increases with workers.

Despite those wins, a point system workers sought to end was expanded and could be used by all eight companies. Under the system, a worker gets a set amount of points, or hours, to clean a building's windows. If the window washers finish the work early, the company pays them commission. But if they work beyond the time allowed, they don't get any additional pay. Workers felt the system forced them to rush and take shortcuts, often at the expense of safety.

Window washer Cruz Guzman, 24, said the expansion of the system is disappointing, but the new contract contains language that keeps companies from lowering points and protects workers who chose to work on an hourly rate, rather than the point system. It also establishes seniority rights to protect older workers. Guzman said he sees the contract as a foundation. "We have a lot more to work on," he said.

Neal S. Zucker, chief executive of Corporate Cleaning Services, said in a statement that he believes the agreement is fair. "As Chicago's largest, all-union window-washing company, Corporate Cleaning Services is proud to have led negotiations on behalf of not only our employees, but for all window washers in Chicago," Zucker said.

More than 200 Chicago area window washers working both for Corporate Cleaning Services and for a Coalition of other major window washing contractors (“Coalition”) ratified a history making agreement on July 19.  The contract includes significant gains in pay, safety improvements, and protection of health care benefits. The window washers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1, and both Corporate Cleaning Services and the Coalition reached a unified agreement after contentious negotiations. Negotiations with Corporate Cleaning Services concluded ahead of the Coalition with the major employer leading the way and doing the right thing for Chicago’s working families. “We’re pleased we concluded bargaining with Corporate Cleaning Services as well as the Coalition,” said SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff.  “We are glad that Corporate Cleaning Service led the way for the other contractors by stepping up, giving significant raises to their employees and most importantly doing the right thing for Chicago’s working families.  

Our unified agreement with Corporate Cleaning Services and the Coalition will allow the window washers to provide a better future for their families and help raise America with good jobs.” Chicago’s window washers step over the edge of skyscrapers like the Trump Tower, Willis Tower, and the Hancock building and risk their lives to help billion dollar corporations, yet struggle to make ends meet for their families. Low wages stunt the growth of our economy: families can’t afford basic necessities, let alone go to the doctor or save for their children’s education. Window washing is a family industry in Chicago; generations of workers have been providing our city with an essential service. Window washers will continue to fight for a better future not only for their families, but for the entire middle class.

City of Chicago Minimum Wage - Minimum Wage Ordinance: On December 2nd, 2014, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that will raise the minimum wage for Chicago workers to $13 per hour by 2019. This measure, sponsored by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Alderman Will Burns, Alderman Pat O’Connor, and 31 other aldermen, will increase the earnings for approximately 410,000 Chicago workers, inject $860 million into the local economy, and lift 70,000 workers out of poverty.

In 2015, the City will begin phasing in its new minimum wage, as provided by the ordinance. This phase-in will help simplify the early years of implementation for businesses and employers. The City's ordinance raises the hourly minimum wage to $10 in 2015, $10.50 in 2016, $11 in 2017, $12 in 2018, and $13 in 2019, indexed annually to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) after 2019.

On September 2, 2014, Mayor Emanuel signed an Executive Order requiring all City of Chicago contractors and subcontractors pay their employees a minimum of $13 per hour for work performed under a City contract. On September 30, 2014, the Mayor requested that all City of Chicago sister agencies follow suit.

The Cleaners Minimum Wage Dilemna

Charles Cestaro, who runs a cleaning business in the Bronx, pays most workers the minimum.

Fearing a Minimum Wage Increase Will Be Bad for Business: Charles Cestaro runs a prospering business in the Bronx cleaning offices and stores, and he knows firsthand what the work is like because he himself long toiled as a cleaner. As a teenager, he found a job as a window washer, hauling a bucket and a squeegee to delis and dry cleaners in the North Bronx. He worked his way up, literally, strapping himself to apartment windows 10 floors high and also waxing floors and scrubbing “way too many bathrooms.” Today, Mr. Cestaro’s Servco Industries, based in a coffee-colored, one-story bunker in Westchester Square, has annual sales of over $5 million and clients that include Sears and Kmart stores. Like many cleaning contractors, he pays most workers $7.25 an hour, the minimum under federal and state law.

The State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently announced that they wanted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, or roughly $17,000 a year. It would be a 17 percent increase, and the first since the previous federal increase, three years ago. “People who work full time should not be poor,” Mr. Silver said, arguing that the current minimum wage was too low for survival. But Mr. Cestaro fears that if he charges more he will lose customers, a concern shared by many other business owners in fiercely competitive, low-skilled businesses like fast-food restaurants and some manufacturing. “They’re not going to want to absorb it,” Mr. Cestaro, 54, said. “They’ll say, ‘Let’s do it ourselves. We can save a bundle of money.’ ”

Mr. Cestaro, who employs 250 workers, argues that he provides jobs that are in precious demand in a lagging economy. “There’s a need to fill positions that don’t require a specific skill,” he said. “When the labor rate moves up, what happens to those people who don’t have a skill? When the day comes when the labor rate is $11, where I can buy a more skilled labor force because I was forced to pay that wage, what’s going to happen to those people who don’t have a skill set?”

As he sees it, the 60 to 75 people — most Latino immigrants — who every week apply for a job at his company are evidence of the demand for jobs paying $7.25 an hour. One of Mr. Cestaro’s workers, Rosa Castillo (below), 39, works from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a Kmart in the Bronx, swabbing restrooms, vacuuming floors, emptying trash containers. She works seven days a week so she can earn overtime. She took the job after moving to the city six weeks ago from Mission, Texas, where her mother and six siblings live, and failing to find work as a waitress. She can afford New York, she said, because she lives rent-free at her uncle’s apartment. Except for necessities like subway fare, she sends almost all her earnings to her husband, who lives in Honduras with their stepdaughter.

Rosa Castillo, who works for Mr. Cestaro, would like the minimum wage raised but is concerned that her hours could be cut.

She would like the minimum wage raised but has qualms. “I think it’s good because I’d be able to make more money,” she said. But she fears that her hours could be cut and that she would earn even less.

Mr. Cestaro, a trimly built, amiable man who favors designer jeans and leather boots, has had his share of lucky breaks, but his business story is mostly one of hard work. He is a workaholic who has not taken a vacation in five years. His major indulgences are his red Ferrari 360 Spider convertible, which costs $240,000, his collection of guitars and the time he spends with his 7-year-old daughter, Giselle.

When rock ’n’ roll gigs were not earning him a living at 20, he trimmed his shaggy hair, pulled out his single earring and, in 1979, with his father’s financial help, started a door-to-door cleaning company out of his parents’ home. Within four years, he was renting a $300-a-month storefront and employing two workers. His first boldface-name client was Giorgio Armani in Manhattan. He learned how risky the business could be when one of his cleaners accidentally sprayed bleach on a $16,000 Armani dress. Mr. Cestaro, with some proceeds from his insurance company, bought the blemished dress, and his sister altered it into a skirt for his niece.

“It’s a nonrespected industry because people can buy the service at the same price you’re charging,” he said. “People don’t look at cleaning bathrooms or carpets as a skilled trade.” He says that in 1996 he was charging clients $15.50 per worker per hour and that he is probably charging $15.50 to $17.50 today. His profit margin, he said, has declined to 9 percent from about 15 percent a decade ago.

His argument that raising the minimum wage might frighten clients is not uncommon in low-wage industries. Jamie Richardson, vice president of the 415-branch White Castle hamburger chain, said that if New York raised its wage, he might trim staff members or choose new locations in states like Indiana and Tennessee with lower minimums. “Adding costs is a job killer,” Mr. Richardson said. “Our customers are real resistant to paying more.”

However, a champion of raising the minimum wage, David Bolotsky, the chief executive of Uncommon Goods, a Brooklyn-based firm that sells designer gift items and pays its entry-level workers $10 an hour, said, “I could not look at myself in the mirror and pay somebody $7.25 an hour — you can’t live on it.”

For Mr. Cestaro, figuring out his price point can involve higher mathematics. He charges by floor space and what he calls density; an office floor that has 10,000 square feet with five desks is less costly than one with 80 desks. Apparel stores are a special category; clothing and sales tags have to be picked off the floor before mopping and waxing can begin. Restaurants are also a challenge because of the meticulous detail work required by health department letter grades.

Particularly skilled cleaners will receive up to $11 an hour. Cleaners in buildings that require unionized workers start at $9.20 an hour. Even a $7.25 worker costs an extra $1.74 for every hour worked because of liability and disability insurance, Social Security and other costs. Equipment can also be expensive; drivable scrubbing machines cost up to $12,000 each.

Should the minimum wage be raised this year, Mr. Cestaro cannot charge a store like Sears any more because he is under a long-term contract. “Sears could care less what the minimum wage is,” he said, “because I’m obligated to them until 2015.”