Living Wage Laws

In 1994, an effective alliance between labor and religious leaders in Baltimore launched a successful campaign for a local law requiring city service contractors to pay a living wage. Since then, strong community, labor, and religious coalitions have fought for and won similar ordinances in cities such as St. Louis, Boston, Los Angeles, Tucson, San Jose, Portland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Oakland -- bringing the national living wage total to 110 ordinances.

Click on the links below to find specific information on . . . .

• Living Wage Laws
• Press Kit
• Message Center
• Strategy Background
• Issue Briefs
• Expert Advice

Today, more than 74 living wage campaigns are underway in cities, counties, states, and college campuses across the country. Taken collectively, these impressive instances of local grassroots organizing is now rightfully dubbed the national living wage movement, which syndicated columnist Robert Kuttner has described as "the most interesting (and underreported) grassroots enterprise to emerge since the civil rights movement … signaling a resurgence of local activism around pocketbook issues."

Here are some prime examples:

• Minneapolis, MN
• Detroit, MI
• Oakland, CA
• San Francisco minimum compensation law
• St. Paul, MN

In short, living wage campaigns seek to pass local ordinances requiring private businesses that benefit from public money to pay their workers a living wage. Commonly, the ordinances cover employers who hold large city or county service contracts or receive substantial financial assistance from the city in the form of grants, loans, bond financing, tax abatements, or other economic development subsidies.

The materials in this package come in large part from the past hard work of ACORN's  Living Wage Service Center, New Rules, the  Brennan Center  and the  Economic Policy Institute.  

We'd like to thank these groups for mapping out the high road on the living wage.

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