Yeah, So, If You Live In Chicago, You're Gonna Hate It.

Because your city council just passed an ordinance requiring any retailer in the so-called "big-box" market - that's anything over 50,000 square feet, in other words, Wal-Mart and Target - to pay $10 per hour in wages and $3 per hour in benefits by 2010.



Wal-Mart responded by canceling plans for future expansion - they HAD been planning to build as many as 20 new locations in Chicago over the next five years, but not anymore. Too bad for those workers. I guess they didn't need $7.25 / hour jobs as bad as they needed to sit at home, unemployed, saying "Woooo! $10 minimum wage! Yeehaaaa!"



Oh, and Target not only canceled future expansion - three new stores in the South Side - but warned that they were likely to close existing stores.



Wal-Mart will also likely close existing stores, but they're less likely to rattle their sabers about it.



Anyway, if you live in Chicago, all your retail prices are gonna go through the roof over the next few years. Without the big-box discounters, you're gonna be paying full retail - and anyone who opens a big-box store under the new ordinance will simply pass along the savings to you. (That's sarcasm, you know.)



So: minimum wage hike. Good luck with that.