Some 5,000 people, many of whom make the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, will see their wages increase to $12.75 by 2020.

The employees will call for a change in low wages and risk arrest by blocking traffic near D.C.’s MLK Memorial on Monday.

They’ll end the fast in a ceremony today at noon, after a day of passing out petitions advocating for a $15-per-hour minimum wage and wearing buttons that say “Ask Me Why I’m Fasting.”

Mayor Vince Gray sent a letter to the committee recommending the minimum wage be raised to $10 immediately with no future automatic raises.

D.C. Working Families, a local offshoot of the national group Working Families, is pushing for a ballot initiative that would require a minimum wage of $12.50 an hour by 2017, as well as a minimum wage of $8.70 for tipped workers.

The big box chain will open hiring centers for the stores at 99 H Street NW and 5968 Georgia Avenue NW on Monday at 900 2nd Street NE and 7818 Eastern Avenue NW.

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.

Though it is the primary target of the Large Retailer Accountability Act, Wal-Mart is far from the only major big-box retailer that is reconsidering its future in D.C.

The retailer hopes to show Mayor Vince Gray it is wanted by District residents.

A group that is partially backed by Wal-Mart has been handing out flyers asking Mayor Vincent Gray to veto the “living wage” bill recently passed by the D.C. Council. The fun thing is, the flyers don’t actually mention Wal-Mart.