Federal workers employed by contractors at low wages to operate concessions and clean federal buildings walked off the job today to urge President Barack Obama to use his executive authority to establish a living wage requirement for contractors that do business with the government.

Today, low-wage workers employed by federal contractors are striking. @barackobama could give them a #livingwage with the stroke of a pen.

— Economic Policy Inst (@EconomicPolicy) September 25, 2013

Following Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray’s veto Thursday of a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores such as Walmart, backers of Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) are mounting a campaign to override the veto.

The bill, which sets a $12.50 wage for workers, passed the D.C. City Council in June by an 8–5 vote, and an override requires nine votes. The Metropolitan Washington Council’s e-news Union City reports that LRAA backers are focusing on D.C. Council member Tommy Wells for the ninth vote. 

In 15 cities today, Walmart workers and their supporters are staging their biggest day of action since the groundbreaking “Black Friday” strike in November. They are demanding that Walmart reinstate 20 workers they say were fired for taking part in a June strike, and they are calling on Walmart to end its poverty-level wage scale and pay a living wage.

Sign the Walmart workers’ petition now to demand that Walmart reinstate fired workers, publicly commit to paying a living wage and respect workers’ rights.

To many people, it is almost obscene that the CEO of McDonald’s, for instance, gets a compensation package worth $13.8 million a year; a giant raise from his 2011 pay of $4.1 million, a pay level that equals 915 full-time, full-year minimum wage workers at McDonald’s. If pay truly reflected the productivity of workers, then presumably if 915 McDonald’s workers went on strike, he would be able to fill in and do their work.

Several dozen Washington, D.C., community, faith and worker activists brought concrete evidence to Mayor Vincent C. Gray that district voters believe workers deserve a living wage, when they delivered 31,917 signatures on a petition urging Gray to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Yesterday, as fast-food workers participated in the largest strike the industry has ever seen, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich released a new video and petition, along with MoveOn, calling on McDonald's and Walmart to pay their workers a decent wage. In the video, he breaks down what steps are needed to make sure workers get a fair share in the current economy, where jobs are coming back, but most of them are paying less than they were before the recession.

Several hundred community, faith and worker activists rallied Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., in Mayor Vincent C. Gray's home ward to urge him to sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart.

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, hundreds of residents, union members, faith leaders and City Council members who back the bill will speak out about why retail workers in the District of Columbia deserve a fair living wage. Join them at 6:30 p.m. EDT at the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, 3000 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E.

Nine former and one current Walmart worker, protesting what they charge is Walmart’s retaliation against workers who have spoken out for justice or taken part in strikes, took arrest Thursday afternoon after they sat down and locked arms in front of Walmart’s Washington, D.C., federal lobbying office. Two other activists supporting the workers also took arrest.

Most fast-food and other low-wage workers are back on the job after a series of rolling strikes earlier this month demanding a living wage and the right to join a union without employer retaliation. More strikes are planned around Labor Day. But the struggle continues for economic justice for the workers who earn the minimum wage ($7.25) or just above.

Two articles you may have missed show that boosting the workers' pay to $15 an hour just might not cut into the profits of companies like McDonald's or cost consumers much more for their favorite burger.