At a Monday forum on the DC Council Chairman and At-Large races, an important question arose from the audience: Why hasn’t the District enforced the Living Wage Act and First Source? A recent DC Auditor’s report highlighted shortcomings in both programs, which were put in place to help make work pay in the District.
It is the kind of question being raised by supporters of Defeat Poverty DC, an effort this election season to ask candidates how they plan to address poverty in three basic areas: making work pay, making work possible, and making basic needs affordable. One good place to start is to fully enforce laws already on the books, like the living wage and first source.
A little background: DC’s living wage, passed in 2006 as part of the Way to Work Act, requires contractors doing business with the District or those receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay workers a “living wage,” currently $12.10 an hour. Across the country, living wage laws are intended to make sure that taxpayer dollars are not spent to create poverty-wage jobs. One fact to keep in mind: A DC resident earning minimum wage has to work three full-time jobs to pay for a market-rate two bedroom apartment in the city.
First Source is a requirement that contractors make their best efforts to hire a majority of District residents for work on projects that receive public funding. Employers can find residents needing work through the First Source registry, which lists unemployed DC residents looking for work
In a May report, DC Auditor Deborah K. Nichols concluded that the District did not adequately monitor the first source program: record-keeping of first source agreements was incomplete, compliance monitoring was neglected, and the first source registry was not properly implemented.
The auditor also found residents who did get work were not being paid the living wage and that contractors were not in compliance with the living wage act.
The impact of not enforcing the living wage and first source hurts all residents, not just those looking for a decent paying job. By not hiring DC residents or not paying the living wage, paychecks unnecessarily travel out to the suburbs and the opportunity to inject more money into DC neighborhoods is lost. These dollars are not likely spent in District businesses, so the city loses out even more.
Both Kwame Brown and Vincent Orange, two of the leading candidates for DC Council Chairman, said they would enforce the living wage act and first source if elected. Whatever the outcome, let’s hold them to that.
It’s in our best interest to do so.
