This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Baiman, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Estimated Economic Impact of a Chicago Big Box Living Wage Ordinance

Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola University Chicago, 820 North, Michigan Avenue, Lewis Towers, 10th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611

Using publicly available data sources and data supplied by Wal-Mart, I estimate the impact of a proposed "big box living wage ordinance" on a new Wal-Mart store scheduled to open in Chicago in the spring of 2006. I find that an ordinance that mandates a $10.00 per hour minimum wage and a $3.00 per hour health care insurance benefit for stores of more than 75,000 square feet would lead to an approximately 15.3 percent increase in labor cost for an average Chicago "big box" retailer. I estimate that, if the entire cost of the mandate were passed on to consumers through price increases, this could be recovered through an approximately 2.1 percent price increase.

Key Words: Wal-Mart • big box • living wage • urban economic development

Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 38, No. 3, 355-364 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0486613406290900


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?