…city government style.

The Washington, DC, Council of the District of Columbia has voted to impose a minimum wage of $12.50 on all retailers in the District that do $1 billion or more in annual corporate sales.  That’s corporate sales, not just the sales that occur within the District.

Oh, and unionized corporations are excused from the minimum wage hike; they still get to pay the original minimum wage of $8.25.

The law was sold as filling a need to pay a livable wage to the good citizens of DC.  But union shops are specifically excused from having to pay a livable wage?

How does any of that work, exactly?

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, the target of this law, has three Walmart stores under construction in DC, with plans for building three more.  They’ve said the new wage requirement throws into a cocked hat their economic analysis of their expansion, and they’ve canceled the three new stores and are exploring how to stop construction on the other three.  In the face of such a blatantly uneven law, they’ve had no choice.

And DC won’t get the 1,800 jobs those six stores were going to bring to six blighted neighborhoods.