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City passes new living wage ordinance

Charlottesville residents earned another victory in the ongoing living wage campaign Monday night, as City Council approved an ordinance guaranteeing certain contracted employees a salary of at least $8 per hour.

The ordinance, which passed Council by a vote of 4-1, applies to employees of certain large city contractors. Employers with contracts of $15,000 or more awarded through certain bidding processes must abide by the new wage requirement, although it does not affect those with current city contracts.

Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati supported the ordinance but said he did so with reservations.

"It's the right thing to do," Caravati said. "It's really hard to argue against it on a philosophical level."

He added that the city of Charlottesville has been paying its own employees a living wage for about a year.

But Caravati's concerns with the ordinance surfaced in debate on the measure, and such concerns ultimately led Council member David A. Toscano to vote against it.

Toscano said he disagreed with the legality of the ordinance. Virginia Attorney General Randolph A. Beales said recently that such a law is not enforceable because it is not enabled by the state legislature.

"As an attorney, I think I have an obligation to raise questions when I think things may be legally unenforceable," Toscano said.

He added that his opposition to the ordinance is no comment on his support for a living wage, which he said is demonstrated through Council's unanimous support for the adoption of a living wage for city, public school and part-time public employees.

Caravati said he would have preferred the ordinance to include a sunset date for when it would expire unless renewed by Council. Council members, however, only agreed that the law will come up for regular review during the city's annual budgetary process.

He also noted that of the 70 or 80 companies contracted by the city, only three do not already pay their employees at least $8 per hour.

"It's largely a symbolic thing we did," he said.

The Virginia Organizing Project, a statewide group that aims to empower ordinary people to improve their quality of life, praised the law as another move toward providing all Charlottesville and Albemarle County workers with sufficient wages.

"Every additional low-wage worker that can get up to a living wage is a big step," VOP Executive Director Joe Szakos said. "Unfortunately, there are many that still need to make that step."

Szakos said his organization will continue to work toward a living wage for all Charlottesville and Albemarle residents.

"We're committed to working with other groups in the community to get all the pieces of the puzzle solved," he said.

Susan Fraiman, an associate English professor and member of the Labor Action Group, said her organization also embraces the new ordinance.

Last fall the University mandated a living wage for all of its own employees, not long after City Council passed such a measure for employees working directly for the city.

Fraiman noted that such a policy continues to grow in importance as more sectors of the University are privatized to national corporations such as Aramark and Servicemaster.

"We would love it if U.Va. would follow [the city's] example and pay contracted workers as well as their own employees a living wage," Fraiman said.

She added that a living wage is smart business practice, in addition to its ethical benefits in providng a better quality of life for employees.

Businesses report increased morale and better quality of service after implementing a living wage policy for employees, she added.

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