Since the new Wal-Mart in Remington is looking to be inevitable now, the City Council is looking to punish the company in other ways now.

Julie Scharper reports:

The bill would require stores that gross more than $10 million annually, or are part of a chain that does, to pay workers the state living wage, which is currently set at $10.59 per hour. It was killed by a tie vote a couple weeks ago in a subcommittee hearing led by Councilman Warren Branch.

Scharper’s blog post also points out that Mary Pat Clarke wrote the bill as a response to the new Wal-Mart store coming to Remington. A vote could take place next month. The State of Maryland’s previous attempts to target Wal-Mart were thrown out in court. The state living wage currently only applies to contractors doing business with the state.

Professor Thomas Sowell did a great job of shredding the notion of a “living wage” years ago (via No Speed Bumps and Pejman Yousefzadeh.)

Carl Horowitz of the Cato Institute also wrote a lengthy paper on the matter.