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The fight for a living wage in the capital walmart with billion dollars in sales and would boost hourly wages by more than $4 to $12.50 an hour. that has walmart fighting back threatening to scrap plans to build three stores in the district of columbia. vincent is one of the original co-sponsors of this living wage bill. good morning, councilman. >> good morning. >> thanks for being with us this morning. so, the bill is now on the mayor's desk. the mayor fought to bring in walmart. a full-court press to convince the mayor to sign this bill into law? >> absolutely. we still think that this is a...

Especially pay $12.50 per hour. but right now we're sitting on $1.5 billion on our rainy day fund and coming off $800 million in surpluses over the last four fiscal years. our ceo projected surpluses in the next four fiscal years. >> still, it could be nice to have such an employer in the washington area to create all of these jobs. just take a look at the bigger picture. if washington, d.c., controls the amount of money that private companies pay their employees, you know, big picture here, might it keep other companies out? >> well, the big picture here is that walmart provides poverty wages...

Only $26,000 on an annual basis and, really, that's not enough, but a big step in the right direction for the workers here in the nation's capital and we're hopeful that the mayor after participating in the 50th anniversary of march on washington for jobs and freedom that he will see the light. back in 1963, dr. martin luther king was calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $2. in today's time, that would be $15.27. so, what we're saying to the mayor is surely we can get $12.50 per hour, which will probably spark a movement across this nation as others are now up in arms over low wages ...

Wage to $15 an hour. currently the average wage for fast food workers is $9 an hour, just over $18,500 a year, well below the poverty line of $23,000 for a family of four. >> the pay is stagnant. it's not going anywhere. >> reporter: the fight to raise the minimum wage at a critical turning point in the nation's capital. the controversial living wage bill expected to be on the washington, d.c., mayor's desk today. it requires big boxed retailers like walmart to pay employees at least $12.50 an hour. organizers hope today's protests could be a turning point. >> we may look back at these strikes...

A legislation that would force retailers, big box stores occupying more than 75,000 square feet or parent companies have to pay $12.50 an hour. the current rate in d.c. is $8.25. 60 cities striking to boost their hourly pay to $15. i think you are at the beginning of this discussion about the minimum wage. >> we were just talking about that. >> you are just at the beginning. so many people, these jobs for many, they were a career. they were a steppingstone to something else. there's not a lot else out there. the average age of a fast food worker, 29. you have people paying off student loans wo...