Proponents of an $8 "living wage" in the City of Charlottesville earned a conditional victory Monday night at the City Council meeting.
City Council moved and seconded an ordinance that would force certain companies holding contracts with the city to pay their employees at least $8 per hour. The ordinance may come up for a vote at City Council's next meeting on Nov. 5.
The living wage requirement would apply to contracts of $15,000 or more awarded through certain bidding processes. The law would not apply to current contracts with the city.
Some local business leaders disagree with the ordinance, arguing that money spent on incentives and worker training provides better value than an $8 wage. "We tend to agree that the solution to poverty is long term and not a quick fix wage increase," said Thomas Grinde, chairman of the board of directors of the Charlottesville chamber of commerce. "The way we feel is if you give a man a fish he eats for a day, but teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever."
"We think that the money businesses would pay in the higher wages would be better served going to education and training. The new economy requires skilled workers," Grinde said. "The best way to help workers is teaching them how to provide value for their labor and make it worth that higher wage."
The campaign for the living wage that began in New York in the early 1990s, won its first major victory in 1994 in Baltimore, when employers holding contracts with the city were required to provide a living wage of $6.10 an hour to their employees.
The Baltimore living wage ordinance included steps to increase the wage to its current level of $7.70 an hour over a four-year period.
Charlottesville City Councilor Meredith Richards called for a regular cost of living adjustment to the $8 wage at Monday's meeting.
The University's Labor Action Group has lobbied for an $8 wage for University employees since 1998, staging protests, rallies and a "Live for a Living Wage" concert in Old Cabell Hall in 1999, which raised $4,000 to support the campaign.
LAG will continue its fight for a living wage for all workers on Grounds on Oct. 7 with a fund-raiser picnic from 2 to 6 p.m. at McIntyre Park in Charlottesville.
"U.Va. raised wages for its non-contract workers [in Nov. 2000] based on the actions of the surrounding community, and I am hopeful that U.Va. will follow the lead of the City Council regarding contracted employees as well," said Susan Fraiman, a professor of English and a member of the LAG.
Many of the major University on-Grounds services are provided by independent contractors such as Aramark, which provides dining services and sets its employee's wages independently of University control.
LAG has called for the University to award contracts only to companies that pay a living wage.
University administrators have argued that their hands are tied on the living wage because budgetary constraints and state contracting procedures require that companies with the lowest bids for service be given preference.
"We will keep working until all of the workers on campus are paid a living wage," Fraiman said.
City Council members could not be reached for comment.
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