On Friday, September 13th, the day after the Mayor vetoed the Large Retailer Accountability Act, the Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) posed the question, “Will Nonprofits Join D.C. City Council’s Plan to Require Walmart to Pay a Living Wage?”
One response that came to our attention is from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, an organization whose mission is to “to use the law to make justice a reality for our neighbors who struggle with homelessness and poverty.” Here’s some of what they had to say:
In a city where a worker earning the current minimum wage of $8.25/hour would have to work 132 hours each week to afford the fair market rent on a 2 bedroom apartment, the prospect of a $12.50/hour wage could mean the difference between remaining a District resident or being forced to abandon a life-long home in DC for a less expensive jurisdiction. A livable wage is key to addressing the crisis of homelessness in the nation’s capital. Families and individuals who are homeless are not going to be able to earn their way out of shelter in a community where housing costs are as high as in DC, unless they are able to earn a better wage than the law presently mandates.
One of the Mayor’s cited reasons for vetoing the LRAA in his letter to the DC Council is that it would only raise the minimum wage for a small fraction of the District’s workforce. While we absolutely support a higher living wage bill for all DC workers, the LRAA is an important step forward in allowing District workers to make a wage that will actually let them live in the place they have called home their entire lives. (For a point by point response to Mayor Gray’s stance against the LRAA, read the DC Fiscal Policy Institute’s blog.)
For the full article, see: “Save Money. Live Better.” Just Not DC Workers?” (…With Housing and Justice for All blog | 9-13-2013)
“Will Nonprofits Join D.C. City Council’s Plan to Require Walmart to Pay a Living Wage?” (Nonprofit Quarterly | 9-13-2013)
