PHOTO/RWEINHARD
By Rev. Dr. Edwin L. Jones, Sr., Pastor, Living Faith Baptist Church and International Ministries, Washington, DC
They confront corporations and their own mayor
Unions, the faith community, community organizations, and low-wage workers in Washington, DC have been mobilizing to pass and to get DC Mayor Vincent Gray to sign the LRAA: the Large Retailer Accountability Act. LRAA is designed to make sure that the most profitable national retail chains pay a living wage to DC workers. These retailers gross more than $1 billion a year and have stores larger than 75,000 square feet in the District. Given their size and wealth, they are best able to pay a living wage without a large impact on consumer prices. Retail workers in DC earn a third less than other workers, currently one of the widest gaps in the nation.
On July 10, 2013 the DC City Council passed the LRAA by a vote of 8 to 5. Corporations have poured millions of dollars to stop this bill and have been lobbying hard to insure that Mayor Gray vetoes it.
By signing the bill, Mayor Vincent Gray has an opportunity to stand up for DC workers at a time when many are being displaced by wages and rising costs of living. Signing this bill does not send a signal that DC doesn’t want jobs; it says we demand the kind of jobs that allow DC residents to afford to live and work in the city.
Some of the opponents in City Council and the mayor’s office argue that this legislation will cost jobs and maintain the lack of retail options in poorer parts of the city that need it the most. But big box stores that are already in DC, like Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Costco, have been very successful here and are not talking about leaving.
Retail is a major source of employment in the city, but wages and benefits for these jobs tend to be very low and leave many working families in poverty. One out of ten people who work for District retailers live below the federal poverty line, according to an analysis of Census data by the Economic Policy Institute. This is three times the poverty rate of those who work in non-retail jobs in the city. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way. Some DC retailers pay a living wage and succeed. Costco, which recently opened a store in the Fort Lincoln neighborhood, reports that it pays its workers and average wage of $20.89 an hour and that 84% of their employees are DC residents.
The question is, will City Council and the Mayor represent workers, or will workers have to carry out this fight for basic necessities on their own?
Rev. Jones can be reached at christianeddirec@aol.com
