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After the Large Retailer Accountability Act was vetoed by Mayor Vincent Gray— a veto subsequently upheld by the D.C. Council—much talk has been going around about what the Council will do next to address some of the issues raised by the LRAA.

As you may recall, many of the Councilmembers who supported Mayor Gray’s veto did so because they wanted to introduce different wage legislation that would address the city’s overall minimum wage, rather than the minimum wage for only large retailers. Today, the D.C. Council took the next step in putting forth new living wage legislation by announcing a unique collaboration with the Montgomery County City Council and the Prince George’s County City Council, proposing region-wide legislation that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour.

At a press conference today, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, along with Montgomery County Councilmembers Marc Elrich and Valerie Ervin, and Prince George’s County Council Chair Andrea Harrison and Councilmember Karen Toles, announced the details of the proposed bills, each of which will be introduced at each jurisdiction’s respective Council meetings later this month.

According to Mendelson, there will be a series of wage bills that will be the subject of public hearings before the Business, Consumer, and Regulatory Affairs Committee meets on October 28 to decide on a proper living wage bill. Mendelson said that the Council’s goal is to “approve a bill that will eventually establish the minimum wage at $11.50 an hour.” Mendelson also said the proposals of this new bill directly address the criticisms of the LRAA, which targeted Wal-Mart and other retailers whose spaces were more than 75,000 square feet and made a certain amount of money. “With the LRAA, Wal-Mart said ‘Why don’t you look at the minimum wage?’ which is what we’re doing,” Mendelson said.

Meanwhile, Elrich’s bill has already been introduced (and is co-sponsored by Councilmember Ervin and Council President Nancy Navarro) and would see the minimum wage increase to $11.50 an hour over a three-year period. The Prince George’s County bill would see a minimum wage increase to $8.75 an hour beginning July 1, 2014, followed by an increase to $10.25 an hour the following year, and finally up to $11.50 an hour in 2016. The counties bills will go up for public hearings on October 24 and October 17, respectively.

Currently there is no minimum wage in Montgomery and Prince George’s County, as they go by the Maryland state minimum, which is $7.25 an hour.

While a regional minimum wage increase is certainly welcomed legislation for all those who thought the LRAA unfairly targeted places like Wal-Mart, critics of this new proposed legislation at the conference expressed concern about how these new bills might push out some of the larger chains, thus shrinking the job market in the region. “McDonald’s isn’t going anywhere, a retailer like Walmart isn’t going anywhere. They’ll just have to learn how to adjust,” Elrich said. “They will learn how to adjust, just like the people who have been living on $7.25 an hour have learned to adjust.”

Adding on to Elrich’s statement, Harrison said that “the retailers will go where the money is.” Explaining that, so long as the region these businesses are in is doing well, they’re not going to close up shop just because of a higher minimum wage: “It depends on where they’re getting most of their money from, they’re going to go there anyway, regardless of what the minimum wage is.”

Harrison also cited a recent study that suggests that, while their could possibly be some reduction in employment, overall it would be a net zero effect. “What has been determined is that while their could possibly some reduction in employment, overall their is a net zero effect,” Harrison said. “Usually what happens is that [these companies] invest a little bit more time in their employees to ensure that they’re getting more for their money. That they’ll then have less turnover and employees will stay there later.”

Elrich added that an increase in regional minimum wage would also trigger a multiplier effect around the region. With a higher minimum wage, “people are going to spend more money,” Elrich said. “It’s going to get poured right back into the economy.”

For D.C., this could be the beginning of the end of the long-running quest to find a way to increase the minimum wage that would make most people happy. “In two decades, the minimum wage has fallen far below the rate of inflation,” Mendelson said. “Working together, we can restore some measure of equity for the lowest paid workers without fear of losing business across our borders.”