The D.C. Council began the year by trying to pass a minimum wage hike intended to bring to Walmart to heel. It is ending the year by pushing a minimum wage increase that would likely benefit Walmart. Such are the tangled politics and economics of the minimum wage issue.

What changed is that the council, frustrated in its effort to pass a hike that singled out the retail giant and left most other businesses untouched, decided to instead push an across-the-board increase. That will likely happen.