Chicago – When Wal-Mart opened a store just outside the city limits last winter, it proudly announced it received a record 25,000 job applications, nearly all of them from Chicagoans.
It was one of the first salvos in an escalating political and public-relations battle between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the City Council, which will consider a proposed ordinance today that would make Chicago the nation’s largest city to require “big box” retailers to pay their workers more.
Mayor Richard M. Daley and others warn the “living wage” proposal will drive jobs and desperately needed development from some of the poorest neighborhoods. Supporters contend Chicago should be a leader in setting standards for worker pay and benefits.
“We don’t want any organization to come into our communities and make money without treating our people fairly,” said the Rev. Reginald Williams Jr., associate pastor for justice ministry at Trinity United Church of Christ on the city’s South Side.
The church is part of a coalition of community and labor groups backing the proposed ordinance, which would require mega-retailers to pay their workers at least $10 an hour in wages plus $3 in fringe benefits by July 1, 2010. That is substantially higher than Illinois’ $6.50 minimum wage and the federal minimum of $5.15.
The measure covers companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet.
The first Wal-Mart in Chicago is set to open in September. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company has more than 40 other stores within 50 miles of the city. Wal-Mart said that its average hourly wage is almost $11 an hour in the Chicago area and that the lowest wage being paid at the new West Side store will be $7.25 an hour.
Some Chicago aldermen also have warned that Target Corp. might rethink its presence in the city. The Minneapolis-based company has not commented.
More than 11,000 people applied for about 400 jobs at the soon-to-open West Side store, Wal-Mart spokesman John Bisio said, and many Wal-Mart supporters say those jobs are desperately needed.
“I think it’s immoral to pass laws that will rob people of jobs. I think there’s something wrong with that,” said Bishop Arthur Brazier of the Apostolic Church of God on the city’s South Side.
