Eighty-five years after it was codified, the subminimum wage for tipped workers is one step closer to being eliminated in one of the very places the practice first began — and providing a progressive mayor and elected socialists a major victory at the municipal level.

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson’s One Fair Wage ordinance cleared the City Council’s workforce committee in a 9-3 vote this past Wednesday, the culmination of years of organizing by low-wage workers and activists, and of months of wheeling and dealing by the mayor and his socialist allies in the city council. If approved by the city council on October 4, as it’s expected to be, the ordinance will scrap the city’s two-tier wage system that leaves tipped workers laboring for a minimum wage five dollars lower than nontipped counterparts, with a uniform $15 minimum wage phased in for all workers by 2028.

The measure has been framed as the first major test of Johnson’s progressive agenda, and it’s clear the mayor and his allies see it similarly.