Melissa Gelinas of the Peace & Justice Center calls for changes to Burlington’s livable-wage ordinance Thursday night. Photo by Taylor Dobbs.
A handful of speakers urged a Burlington City Council committee Thursday evening to put some teeth into the city’s livable-wage ordinance.
Adopted 12 years ago but largely unenforced, the ordinance became the subject of a heated debate last November after the Skinny Pancake was granted an exemption to the rule when it opened a new restaurant at the city-owned Burlington International Airport.
The ordinance requires companies receiving $15,000 in city contracts to pay their employees a livable wage — $13.94 an hour for employees provided health insurance or $15.83 for employees without. A 55-page report issued in April by City Attorney Eileen Blackwood found that only 23 of 160 companies with contracts subject to the ordinance were in compliance.
Thursday night, at the Burlington Police Department’s community room, the council’s three-member ordinance committee continued its review of the rule, with an eye toward improving its enforcement. But at least one speaker was displeased with the committee’s progress.
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The City could probably payback the tax payers back the 17 million it owes from BTC if they handed out $500 per day per worker fines to 137 companies…
The problem with idealistic crap like this is that the naive people that enact such ordinances really believe that people and businesses will just abide it, without enforcement, and without reason. Then 12 years later without a single fine ever being handed out and 137 or 160 companies out of compliance it really just makes the whole ado with the skinny pancake look really really really stupid. Really stupid. But then again that seems to be the image BTV is going for these days.