Two of the District’s mayoral candidates this week threw their support behind a living wage for employees of large retailers — during a forum Friday sponsored by a major D.C. business association.
Legislation pending before the D.C. Council would require retailers of at least 30,000 square feet, whose employees aren’t unionized, to pay their workers a living wage. The bill, co-introduced by Council Members Phil Mendelson, D-at large, and Adrian Fenty, D-Ward 4, would also guarantee workers the right to engage in noncommercial speech inside the store.
The bill is up for a hearing Monday before the government operations committee, chaired by Ward 5 Council Member Vincent Orange, another mayoral candidate.
During a candidate forum sponsored by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Fenty and lobbyist Michael Brown called the living wage provision a proactive approach to protect the city’s nonunion workforce and rebuild the middle class. Target, Best Buy and Costco, among others, have either opened stores in the District or are planning to do so.
“It’s the right direction because otherwise you have a terrible situation where the government responds after a crisis occurs,” Fenty said.
The other candidates, including Council Chairman Linda Cropp, were not ready to commit.
At the very least, Orange said, the living wage should not apply to large retailers with projects currently in the pipeline, because the businesses might turn around and leave.
Marie Johns took a strong stand against the bill’s noncommercial speech stipulation, a provision designed to protect the right of workers to organize.
Scott Sterling, vice president of government operations with the board of trade, called a living wage an “imposition” and an “intrusion into the traditional view of what a private retailer would expect when moving into a jurisdiction.”
What’s a living wage?
» Established by the mayor
» Full-time worker would earn a salary at least equal to 115 percent of the federal poverty rate for a family of four
» Would include a benefits rate of at least $3 per hour
