Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., offered the following statement on Mayor Richard M. Daley’s veto of the Big-Box ordinance:

"Mayor Daley stands with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress against incrementally raising the minimum wage. I support a living wage on principle and as a human right.

I also believe that it is impossible to support a living wage and say that the richest corporations in the world can’t pay it. After 17 years of no jobs for the urban core of our city, Mayor Daley vetoed a livable wage ordinance. In other words, he has joined the corporations’ exploitation of the most desperate by offering them either low-wages or no-wages, offering them a big-box or no-box.

I suggest that the Mayor give up his $200,000+ job for six months and try living on the salary that the Chicago City Council passed. Richard M. Daley is the mayor of the ‘city that works,’ and now the mayor of the city that works for lower wages."