Mayor Vincent C Gray, who worked hard to lure Wal-Mart, finds himself caught in the middle, and many residents sound less than grateful to the lawmakers who claim to be looking out for them.
"Those big people in government, they don't understand my situation," said Fred Reaves, 45, who is unemployed and said he would gladly take a job at the current city minimum, $8.25.
"Eight-something, it'll motivate you to start going to work," Reaves said as he stood around the Skyland Town Center, a patch of barren asphalt and shuttered stores where Wal-Mart planned to build. "You can start paying some bills. It will help you to come off public assistance."On July 10, the City Council passed a "living wage" measure that would require Wal-Mart to pay at least $12.50 an hour, saying it was fighting to protect struggling residents in what has become a high-cost city.
The paradox for the city's lawmakers is that in neighborhoods where some of the stores are planned, the economic picture can appear very different from the view from government offices that contemplate a skyline of construction cranes and a booming economy.
Supporters of the measure say that Wal-Mart, whose revenues in 2012 were $469 billion, can well afford to pay workers more.
"Their net income was $17 billion," said Vincent Orange, a city councilman who voted for the ordinance. "You don't want to share a little bit with the citizens? Come on."
A decade ago, the city gave tax breaks to lure retailers, Orange said, but now it is booming and can negotiate from strength.
The day before the City Council passed the measure, a Wal-Mart regional official warned in an op-ed article in The Washington Post that if required to pay $12.50 an hour, the company would cancel three planned stores and consider withdrawing from three other projects already under construction.
The next move is up to Gray, who is weighing a veto.
Officially the mayor has taken no position, but he is widely seen as opposed to the measure. The Council has delayed formally sending it to his desk for action. Supporters are said to be working behind the scenes to muscle one of five council members who voted against it to switch sides, providing a ninth vote that could override any veto.
The measure, called the Large Retailer Accountability Act, would require stores of at least 75,000 square feet that are owned by companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue to pay the higher minimum wage. Because existing stores and those with union contracts are exempt, it is seen as squarely aimed at Wal-Mart.
In recent years as Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has saturated suburban markets, it has sought inroads to major cities. It has often faced resistance from local merchants, who fear being undercut, and from officials who say minimum-wage jobs mire workers in poverty.
Democrats on the House of Representatives workforce committee produced a report this spring contending that the government subsidizes Wal-Mart because employees earn so little that they qualify for Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.
Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Gray, argued the opposite: Minimum-wage jobs help the chronically unemployed take a first step into the workforce, reducing the cost of the social safety net.
"Yes, Wal-Mart jobs are not great," Ribeiro said. "But for some people, it will be their first employment and they're not qualified to do anything else. We need that entry-level benchmark in the District."
Washington is experiencing an economic revival, with population growth on a par with Sun Belt cities, reversing the tide of a decade ago. But the benefits are not spread evenly. East of the Anacostia River in Ward 7, where two of the Wal-Mart stores, including the Skyland site, are planned, unemployment is 13.9 per cent. In nearby Ward 8, it is 20 per cent.
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