On July 26, 2006 the Chicago City Council

Chicago City Council

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...

 voted to approve an ordinance sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore

Joe Moore (politician)

Joseph Moore is the alderman representing the 49th Ward of the City of Chicago. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was first elected to the City Council in 1991 and re-elected in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011....

 (49th) which for 7 weeks made Chicago the largest United States city that required big-box retailers

Big-box store

A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...

 to pay what its sponsors characterized as a "living wage

Living wage

In public policy, a living wage is the minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs . These needs include shelter and other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition...

." This legislation was widely watched and reported in the national press, especially among Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 affiliates. More than two dozen publication, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a major U.S. daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. Its area of domination is checked by its main rival, The Dallas Morning News, which is published from the eastern half of the Metroplex. It is owned...

, Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

, The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...

, Rocky Mountain News

Rocky Mountain News

The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...

, The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

, and Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia Daily News

The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...

, carried the story.

Formally entitled "AMENDMENT OF TITLE 4 OF MUNICIPAL CODE OF CHICAGO BY CREATION OF NEW CHAPTER 404 ENTITLED "LARGE RETAILERS"", the ordinance was popularly known as the "Living Wage Ordinance" or "Big Box Ordinance." This ordinance would have required companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90000 square feet (8,361.3 m²) to pay wages of at least $10 an hour plus $3 in fringe benefits by mid-2010. (The minimum wage

Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...

 in Illinois at the time of the ordinance's passage was $6.50 an hour, the federal minimum being $5.15). Other U.S. cities with living wage laws include Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

 and Albuquerque in New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

; San Francisco, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

; and Washington D.C..

Mayor Daley

Richard M. Daley

Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...

vetoed the ordinance on September 11, 2006, and two days later the City Council sustained the veto.