D.C. Council fails to override "living wage" veto, paving way for Wal-Marts The Large Retailer Accountability Act would have required retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion or more operating D.C. locations of at least 75,000 square feet to pay their employees a "living wage" of no less than $12.50 an hour in combined wages and benefits. The bill had become part of a national campaign against the proliferation of low-wage jobs, and it has become interwoven locally with Wal-Mart's plans to open several stores in the city. Wal-Mart said after Gray's veto last week that it would proceed with plans for at least five stores if the council sustained the veto. Activists favoring the bill targeted several council members who opposed it, in the hope of inspiring a change of heart - particularly Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), a mayoral candidate who is known for his progressive political leanings. But Wells remained steadfastly opposed, instead gathering support for a bill he introduced Tuesday that would institute an across-the-board minimum wage hike indexed to inflation. The bill gained nine co-introducers, indicating significant momentum for the notion of an across-the-board wage increase. Wells is not the only official opposed to the large-retailer bill and now proposing a broader increase. Gray (D) floated an unspecified minimum-wage hike in his veto letter Thursday, and council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) also introduced a bill Tuesday proposing an increase. Council watchers have considered Catania the most likely of the five council opponents to switch his vote in an override vote, given his comments on the council dais in July suggesting he could support the bill with minor amendments. He remained cagey about his stance up until the final vote Tuesday afternoon, but in the end maintained his stance against the measure. In a late attempt to persuade legislators, a coalition of groups supporting the bill on Monday released the results of a telephone poll taken Friday and Saturday showing broad support for the large-retailer measure among city residents. The survey of 504 registered voters, done by Hart Research Associates, found 58 percent of city residents supported an override of Gray's veto, while 34 percent thought the veto should stand. The results carry a 4.5 percentage point margin of error. And on Tuesday, as the council met upstairs, more than 100 supporters of the bill gathered outside the John A. Wilson Building, with many warning they would remember the names of five council members who voted against the measure come election time next year. Dozens of the protesters held up red-white-and-blue Obama-style campaign posters, replacing the likeness of the president with silk-screen-style images of the five council members who had cast votes against the bill. All of the posters contained a single word: "OVERRIDE." Mayor Gray, we all know he's spineless ... but now Wells? He won't get any votes in Ward 7 or Ward 8, will he?" asked Inocencio Quinones, an organizer with Our DC asked, eliciting applause from the crowd. The Rev. Graylan Hagler also singled out each of the five by name. But he said that even if the measure failed to pass the override, supporters had won by getting the mayor and council to seriously address raising the minimum wage. "You've changed the conversation," he told the crowd. Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.