Living Wage Laws
Since the early 1990s, more than 140 municipalities across the country have enacted living wage laws to restore the wage floor at the local level. Living wage laws establish wage standards for businesses that receive contracts or subsidies from local governments. They provide a practical way for cities to ensure that public dollars generate quality jobs for local residents. With wage rates ranging from $9 to $13 per hour and higher, living wage laws raise the minimum wage closer to a level that allows low-income workers to meet their families' basic needs. Most living wage laws also create incentives for employers to provide health care by providing wage credits for employers who do so.
NELP has provided extensive legal and policy support for the living wage movement, including:
-
Providing legal support to dozens of living wage campaigns in cities ranging from New York to Atlanta to Sacramento;
-
Helping to defend living wage laws (St. Louis, Berkeley, Hudson County) and encourage their enforcement (Buffalo, Hayward);
-
Developing a model living wage law as a resource for local advocates and policymakers;
-
Publishing a report examining the impact of living wage laws on city budgets, and another report projecting the effects of the New York City Living Wage Law for the city's businesses and working families.
For more information on our work in this area, please contact Paul Sonn, psonn@nelp.org.
Other key resources:
