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City Council adopted big
box ordinance: Wal-Mart stays out of Chicago city limits rather than paying its workers a living wage The Chicago City Council adopted a bill yesterday that requires Wal-Mart and other big box stores to pay their workers a living wage. Any such store that is 90,000 square feet (8,361 square meters) or more and whose annual sales are over 1 Billion USD must pay its workers at least 10 USD an hour, with 3 USD in other benefits. In addition to Wal-Mart, the Chicago ordinance will affect a dozen other retailers, although not as directly as the Bentonville multinational. Wal-Mart is known for its low wages and poor benefits - in Chicago's West Side it intends to start with entry level wages of only 7,25 USD. Thus, it would need to improve its employer performance considerably to comply with the new city legislation. The social dumping - focused company took yesterdays City Council decision badly. Keeping in line with its closing of its store in Canadian Jonquière, to avoid having to pay decent wages and recognise a union for its workers, Wal-Mart will now try to stay clear of the city limits. Going out to the suburbs instead can allow the Bentonville giant to continue exploiting its workers through substandard wages and a denial of affordable health insurance. Chicago is, however, too interesting a market for Wal-Mart to abandon completely. - They're not going to leave; they're too greedy," the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a priest on the South Side was quoted by AP as saying.
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