Ordinance to boost Chicago jobs

Posted on December 7, 2016

Two new ordinances have been recently passed that will boost Chicago jobs.

One will expand the bid preference offered to City-based businesses that employ Chicago residents and one will expand the City’s Mentor-Protégé program that rewards prime contractors who actively mentor Minority-owned Business Enterprises (MBE) and Women-owned Business Enterprises (WBE).

“Over the past several years, we’ve made changes to our procurement programs and processes in order to create economic opportunities for our residents and ensure the vendors who work on City contracts reflect the diversity of the City itself,” said Mayor Emanuel. “The expansion of this bid preference provides City contractors with an additional incentive to hire City residents, creating jobs in neighborhoods throughout Chicago.”

The City currently offers a two percent bid preference to City-based businesses. To encourage these businesses to hire City residents, City Council has passed an ordinance introduced by the Mayor to expand that preference to four percent for City-based businesses with a permanent, full-time workforce consisting of more than 50 percent City residents. Further, the preference will expand to six percent if the majority of such business’s City resident workforce resides in any designated socio-economically disadvantaged area of the City.

“The economic vitality of our communities is directly linked to the availability of local jobs,” said Alderman Thompson. “I’m committed to doing everything in my power to encourage job growth, which is why I’m proud to co-sponsor this measure to further incentivize City contractors to hire Chicagoans.”