The immediate target of living wage laws is private firms with government contracts. Baltimore, Milwaukee and Santa Clara, Calif., have already enacted laws requiring contractors to pay workers more than the federal minimum wage. Others view it at as a costless anti-poverty effort.
Some critics suggest the primary aim is to halt privatization efforts.
The Senate will debate and vote on a bill this summer that would remove a union's long-standing privilege in most states to force workers to choose either to pay union dues or lose their jobs. Twenty-one states now have such laws. In 1983, 18.5 percent of private sector payroll workers were covered by a union contract, and 16.5 percent formally belonged to a union. By 1994, those figures had declined to 11.9 percent and 10.8 percent. The decline in union membership in the nation's private sector could be traced to the fact that Americans do not like to be told what to do.