Last month, amid the flap enveloping disgraced celebrity chef Paula Deen, Wal-Mart put on a face of corporate responsibility. “We are ending our relationship with Paula Deen Enterprises and we will not place new orders beyond those already committed,” its officialstatement read.

Yet, behind the appearances of zero tolerance for the kind of hostile work environment — rife with racial slurs, discrimination and harassment – that Deen allegedly fostered, was a deep irony. Wal-Mart, like Deen, was engaging in its own bullying right around the same time.

Just days before ditching the TV personality, Wal-Mart was busy entering into a standoff with the Washington, D.C., City Council over its proposal for a living wage law. In a Washington Post Op-Ed titled “The D.C. Council Has Forced Our Hand,” Wal-Mart regional manager Alex Barron penned the corporation’s intention to close three of six planned superstores if the council voted and passed the bill that would raise D.C.’s minimum wage to $12.50 per hour.

The move to intimidate the D.C. Council should come as no surprise as the nation’s largest retailer refuses to allow its workers to unionize, hindering their rights to fair wages. Wal-Mart’s promise to bring “everyday low prices” and jobs to cities across the nation comes at a high price. Studies show approximately 80 percent of Wal-Mart employees are forced to use food stamps and cost taxpayers an average of $1.02 billion in healthcare costs annually.

While Wal-Mart claims the hike in minimum wage would compromise its ability to create 1,200 D.C. jobs, its competitor Costco disproves the theory that corporations cannot pay livable wages and earn profits. Wal-Mart workers typically earn $8.81 per hour in contrast to the average Costco worker’s $21.96 an hour and most are eligible for benefits.

D.C. Council approved the proposal for six superstores under the condition that it would not drain government resources, a commitment to D.C. residents that Wal-Mart does not seem to fully respect.