Certifications

Select Certification DBE MBE WBE SBE DVBE HUB Section 3 ELBE SLBE

State

Select a State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

African-American businesses left out of Chicago contracts

African-American-owned businesses are largely being left out of City of Chicago contracts, according to recent figures from the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

While minority and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs) overall have a 29 percent share of the city's contracting awards, African-American-owned businesses received only 8 percent overall.

The share of such contracting dollars going to African-Americans remains not only low overall, but has actually declined relative to the previous year. 

Chief Procurement Officer for the city, Jamie Rhee, stated that the low share of African-American-owned businesses represented in the figures could be chalked up to the figures representing the dollar value of payments, including payments for past projects, rather than the dollar value of awards.

Rhee has also said that the recently expanded suite of incentive programs that aim to reduce obstacles to MBE participation need time to continue to do their work.

Others have offered ideas on how to increase participation of African-American-owned businesses, too. In September, Roderick Sawyer, the chairman of the city council's Black Caucus, proposed that the city lift the cap on gross income and personal net worth that is established by the city’s set-aside program.