7/26/2006

$13 an hour

Bye-bye Chicago as city of the big shoulders.  Forget P-Stone Nation and various Lords: “Unions run it” goes on billboards at city limits all three sides and maybe on buoys offshore — just across city limits, that is, for people to see as they consider entry.  Not people, you know, but successful companies of a certain size.  Hey.  This may be why Oak Park flirted with a ban on Lane Bryant: it’s the size that put trustees off.  THINK SMALL!

After more than three hours of debate, aldermen voted 35 to 14 today in favor of an ordinance that will require "big-box" retailers to pay their workers more than minimum wage.

That’s veto-proof, not that Daley would do it if he could, unless he could do it under cover of darkness, as he plowed Meigs Field under.  It’s not his style. 

The measure only applies to companies with over $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet, which means it primarily affects Target and Wal-Mart.

It requires them to pay at least $10 an hour in wages plus another $3 in fringe benefits by July 2010. The state's minimum wage is $6.50 an hour.

This be madness.

1 comment:

Cal Skinner said...

And 36 of the alderpersons don't have ouitside jobs.