CABBIES TURN UP HEAT ON RAHM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to raise Chicago’s minimum wage — to $9.25-an-hour immediately and $10.25 next year — while forcing 13,000 cabdrivers to work around-the-clock for less than half that amount, including tips, cabbies charged Tuesday. One day after a City Council hearing shined a spotlight on ride-sharing companies siphoning business from taxis, “Cabdrivers for Justice” turned up the heat on Emanuel to raise cab fares for the first time since 2005. Group leader Melissa Callahan reiterated the argument she made in a federal lawsuit against the city after Emanuel’s 2012 taxi reforms: Chicago has imposed so many regulations on the taxicab industry, cabdrivers are essentially city employees who must be paid the state’s $8.25-an-hour minimum wage. Callahan cited a pair of studies — one by the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009, the other by the city’s handpicked consultant in 2011 — that showed cabbies falling far short of that amount. They’re working 12-hour days, seven days a week for anywhere from $4.08 to $4.38 an hour, she said. And that was before ride-sharing gained its current foothold, taking even more money out of cabdrivers’ pockets, Callahan said. — Fran Spielman