Nearly 2 million people who are employed through federal contractors earn less than $24,000 a year. That’s more low-wage workers than any private company, including Walmart and McDonald's, combined. At the 43rd annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's recent Legislative Conference, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) moderated a panel discussion on those low-wage workers and ways to improve their wages and working conditions.

Although the Washington, D.C., Council did not override Mayor Vincent C. Gray's veto of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would have required the district’s big-box retailers to pay workers a living wage of $12.50 an hour, the conversation about raising the minimum wage in D.C. is gaining momentum. 

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.

The growing group of Walmart workers across the country who are demanding justice and a decent wage gave the giant retailer a Labor Day deadline to meet their demands or face intensified and widespread actions. Walmart didn't, so starting Thursday Walmart workers will mount a wide wave of actions. 

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.