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Over the summer, I wrote about the living wage bill passed by the DC Council. The Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) increases the DC minimum wage from $8.25 to $12.50 for certain large retailers in the city. 

But DC Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed the bill today. In a letter to the DC Council, Gray wrote, “If I were to sign this bill into law, it would do nothing but hinder our ability to create jobs, drive away retailers, and set us back on the path to prosperity for all.”

It was feared that Walmart would cancel plans for new stores in the city if the LRAA went into effect. Two Walmart stores are slated to open later this year or early in 2014:  one at 5968 Georgia Avenue in Northwest and the other at 99 H Street in Northwest. A third Walmart at…

The living wage in DC for employees of big box stores just became $12.50 an hour after the DC Council approved the Large Retailer Accountability Act. Those who support the new living wage in DC believe it protects workers as the cost of living in the city increases, but others think it may cause big box stores like Wal-Mart to back out of plans to open stores in the city.

DC’s minimum wage of $8.25 is already higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. But $12.50 is more than 50% more than the old DC minimum wage.

The new living wage in DC applies to retailers with over 75,000 square feet of retail space and corporate parent sales over $1 billion per year. The bill includes exemptions for stores with unions and those that already exist in the…