A coalition of labor and religious officials got Baltimore to pass the first of these laws in 1994. Since then some 50 cities have followed, among them St. Louis, Boston, Los Angeles, San Jose, Portland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis and Miami-Dade County. Business interests, trying to forestall that, are pushing a ballot measure that would actually help just 200 workers. There is, in fact, a hollow ring to business arguments that living wages are unaffordable. Corporate balance sheets have been healthy.
Decent pay accorded workers is returned in expanded customer bases.
Recent research is showing that cities' living wage laws, rather than triggering the job losses some economists had predicted, are causing few job cutbacks and in fact are lifting many families out of poverty. And that's just a first step, says Watson, in his or any city tackling major unfinished business in the new century.