Photo by Amber Wilkie
When it comes to D.C.’s hourly workers and a “living wage,” Tommy Wells has said that he’s generally supportive of the idea, just not the attempt to mandate one that was passed last week by the D.C. Council.
Wells, who represents Ward 6, was one of five councilmembers to vote against the Large Retailer Accountability Act, which passed the Council and is somewhere in the ether between the legislative branch and Mayor Vince Gray’s pen. If it becomes law, that bill would require retailers that gross at least $1 billion in revenue to pay at least $12.50 per hour to employees at stores that are larger than 75,000 square feet, provided the stores’ workers are are not unionized and negotiate their own collective bargaining agreement.
More plainly, the “living wage” bill is written with Wal-Mart in mind. Until last week’s vote, the retail giant was planning on building six stores throughout D.C. (It now says it’ll only open the three that are already under construction.) Gray, who was wary of the bill’s passage, has not said if he’ll veto the bill, but sources in the John A. Wilson Building say he is leaning that way.
One of the Walmart locations that will open is in Ward 6, but Wells’ chief of staff, Charles Allen, says that’s not why Wells opposed the Large Retailer Accountability Act. Wells, in fact, has his own idea of how to implement a living wage.
Wells today announced that when the Council reconvenes this fall, he will push a bill that rather than focus on the size of retail stores, modifies income tax deductions and the minimum wage. It would double the District’s standard deduction for personal income taxes, and raise the minimum wage a dollar a year for two years, after which, the minimum wage would be pegged to increases in the cost of living.
The District’s minimum wage is $8.25 an hour, a buck higher than the federal standard; the bill passed last week would have mandated an hourly minimum of $12.50 at stores like Walmart.
“Tommy has said ‘I support a real living wage,’ but this is not that bill,” Allen says. “What he wanted to do is read the tea leaves of where things are headed. He wanted to make sure he’s helping to lead the conversation.”
Allen adds that his boss, who is running for mayor, does not want to “use a club,” in creating a living wage for D.C. workers, the way the LRAA bluntly goes after big box stores.
“A living wage is not just about an hourly salary, it’s about how you make sure those employees are keeping what they’re earning,” Allen says.
But the retailers that would be impacted by the LRAA might not be totally thrilled with Wells. His bill would also create a “Healthy D.C. fee,” which would require employers that do not provide health benefits to their hourly workers would have to include in wages enough money to pay for insurance. Allen says the fee is modeled after a program in San Francisco, which requires that employers of a certain size have to pay between $1.31 and $1.96 per hour to cover health benefits.
