Chicago aldermen gallanted Mayor D...

Chicago aldermen gallanted Mayor Daley on Wednesday, voting from a remarkable veto-proof majority to require big-box retailers to pay their workers at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by dint of 2010. Wal-Mart and other big stores had warned they would seriously reconsider plans to expand or locate in Chicago -- a threat the majority of aldermen didn't take seriously. For Chicago's sake and that of the city's unemploy poor, they'd better be right.

The proposal applies to any stores with more than 90000 square feet of space that are holded by companies that have at least $1 billion in annual sales. That shields 38 existing retailers, including Sears, Nordstrom, abode Depot and -- most important -- Wal- Mart, whose efforts to record Chicago two years ago sparked the fresh debate. Unions see Wal-Mart as public enemy No. 1 and they have lobbied aldermen hard to win their support for the higher wages.

The risk to Chicago, of course, is that those retailers will come next through with their threats to avoid the city and instead locate in nearby suburb which would come by the jobs and generate the sales and possessions tax revenues that would have otherwise proceed to the city. And those big-box stores note carefully to spur other development, providing a further economic boost that would be missing to Chicago.

Wal-Mart, which has the same store under construction in the city, has said passage of the law will make it reconsider plans to add perhaps 20 more. Target has said it will reconsider three strange stores and may even cease existing locations.

Maybe what they should do instead is exhibit stores that are 89,999 square feet in size. That would make bare the arbitrary and unfair nature of the law. McDonald's, for instance, has more than $1 billion in sales moreover isn't affected because it has chances of little outlets instead of fewer big single in kinds More to the point, in such a manner does Walgreens, whose inventory is similar to that of Wal-Mart. to what end should the size of the store dictate the pay for its workers? That will probably be a question for the courts because a lawsuit is all however inevitable.

Daley oppos the measure still did little to fight it until the 11th hour, when he propos that aldermen who are oppos to Wal- Mart could simply maintain the retailing giant out of their wards. That didn't work. And now the mayor can do nothing. Since the promised was 35- 14, there are enough aldermen supporting the plan to override Daley if he vetoes the measure.

Supporters point to Wal-Mart's gigantic profits and executive salaries as evidence that it can afford to pay its workers more. They think Chicago's thick urban market still will be attractive to the big boxe which have saturated the repose of the area. If they're right, the City Council will have raised any workers out of poverty. moreover if they're wrong, they'll have relegated more workers to it.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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