The San Francisco proposal is one of the most comprehensive. It applies even to restaurant and small business owners who rent space from the city at Fisherman's Wharf. Depending on the local political conditions, campaign proponents can add a number of exemptions to make a living wage bill just palatable enough to pass. Furthermore, the living wage laws set thresholds on which businesses the laws apply to, based on their number of employees and the monetary value of their contract with the municipality. The reaction of non-profits to living wage laws has been mixed.
Some municipalities exempt non-profits.
But others protest that there is no way they can perform their mission if they are forced to pay high wages. For example, Jim Illig of Project Open Hand in San Francisco, which provides care to AIDS patients, says that if a living wage law is passed there, his organization will have to substantially cut back on its services. Supporters of the living wage would certainly prefer to apply it to all businesses in a locality and not just those that deal with the local government. But there are two reasons why they do not pursue such laws. This can be a problem even for living wage laws affecting businesses that deal only with city and county govenments.