District living wage legislation shows promise

This Wednesday, businesspeople and activists crowded into City Hall for the D.C. Council’s public hearing for the Large Retailer Accountability Act. This groundbreaking piece of legislation, introduced in January by D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) would require large retailers, or firms with stores larger than 75,000 square feet whose corporate parent rakes in profits upwards of $1 billion, to pay their D.C. workers a living wage.

In other words, the bill would require large businesses to pay their employees an income sufficient to afford the costs of living in the District. The living wage proposed by the bill, $11.75 per hour plus benefits, greatly surpasses D.C.’s minimum wage of $8.25 per hour. In addition, unlike the minimum wage, the living wage would actually be updated yearly according to the Consumer Price Index to account for inflation.

The unfortunate reality is that low-income individuals are often forced to work multiple jobs to be able to sustain themselves and their families. When overwork fails to keep them out of poverty, workers resort to utilizing welfare benefits to compensate for depressed wages. In other words, taxpayers are forced to subsidize companies and their exploitation of a vulnerable workforce.

Perfectly timed, the bill is being presented as the District starts to permit corporate giants like Walmart to set up shop in the city. Of course, large retailers like Walmart are helpful in the economic development of a city. This is especially true in the case of D.C.’s Ward 7, where one of the proposed Walmart outlets promises to alleviate the area’s food desert and 14.7 percent unemployment.

The bill has not been without opposition. Though no Walmart personnel testified at Wednesday’s hearing, the retailer along with pro-business groups such as the D.C. Chamber of Commerce have been vocal in arguing that the proposed legislation will alienate investors, counteracting employment creation and hindering D.C.’s development.

However, this issue obviously extends beyond mere job creation for the District’s underprivileged, who face tough battles in a progressively wealthier and more gentrified city. It is essential that incoming companies establish just and dignified employment opportunities for District residents, especially if they are as large as Walmart, and it is the city government’s responsibility to guarantee that this happens.

Currently the bill has 11 co-sponsors in the D.C. Council, which makes its approval likely on the 13-member body. Its passage is imperative as a first step to ensure that worker’s rights are respected in the District, setting a poverty-alleviating precedent for other cities and states with poverty-level wages nationwide.