Well, it’s official. Chicago’s first Wal-Mart opened today to cheers and boos after Mayor Richard Daley vetoed the so-called big-box ordinance. The law would have required large retailers like Wal-Mart to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour by mid-2010.
One number leaps out of today’s Tribune story about the opening: the lowest pay scale at the West Side store is $7.25 an hour, and only two workers are paid that (what’s up with those two guys?). That’s higher than the federal ($5.15) and Illinois ($6.50) mimimum wages, and not too far from the $10 requirement when you consider inflation and the length of the phase-in.
Some might wonder what all the fuss was about. The crux of the issue for retailers wasn’t really pay or benefits or job creation, but the role of government and the principle that it has a part to play in the welfare of workers. From child-labor laws to the 8-hour work day to OSHA regulations, every legislative measure that improves workers’ lives is opposed by at least some business interests on principle, usually with the refrain that it will “cost jobs.” Studies are always on hand to prove that environmental regulations, onerous workplace safety rules, and benefits and wage requirements cost jobs. These studies don’t usually consider the larger societal costs of a minimum wage whose buying power has declined 25 percent over the last 20 years.
Measures like Chicago’s big-box ordinance might be flawed, but they’re a step in the right direction given the vacuum Congress has left on this issue. Agree? Disagree? Give us your take in our retail forum.