When taxpayer dollars are used to promote private enterprise, the public has the right to expect something in return: good jobs at good wages. In New York City, labor groups, community and religious organizations, elected officials and a diversity of New Yorkers are currently organizing to pass a living wage ordinance which would require tenants on land that is owned to pay its employees a living wage of $10 per hour plus benefits, or $11.50 per hour without benefits. Such an ordinance would be a valuable tool in reducing poverty among New Yorkers who work in one of the fastest-growing sectors of our economy: the retail industry.

In December 2009, Bronx City Council delegation members Annabel Palma and G. Oliver Koppell proposed an amended living wage ordinance (Intro 1105) for the City of New York. If passed, this ordinance would require retailers to pay living wages at projects that receive public subsidies.

The proposal would require any company, organization or developer who receives more than $10,000 annually of “city assistance,” which can cover tax breaks, financing, grants and energy cost allocations, to pay a living wage to all employees on the property.

John Petro, urban policy analyst at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, said that, if passed, this ordinance “would completely change the way the city handles economic subsidy deals.”

“By setting this law, the city will show that projects that pay a living wage can be successful, that setting wage standards will not kill all the city’s jobs, and that living wages are ultimately good for all New Yorkers, even retailers.”

As the movement for worker rights and community benefits moves forward, more and more retail workers are joining with community and labor activists to say “no” to economic development injustice in New York City.