Towards Fair Wages Minimum wage wins and the labor coalitions that drive them Olivia Gee, Tiolora Lumbantoruan, Alekhya Mukkavilli, Brian Toy CRP 5074 | Fall 2020 This work was under the direction of Prof Mildred Warner as part of a larger project supported in part by the Cornell Center for the Study of Inequality. Executive summary Wages for middle- and low-wage workers have stagnated or fallen since the late 1970s with the only reversal against this trend coming from state and local minimum wage increases (Mishel et. al., 2015; NELP, 2020). Minimum wage State preemption laws inhibit local minimum wage movements across 26 states (Economic Policy Institute, 2019). As such, workers across the country are increasingly unable to afford rising costs of living in urban localities. This reality poses both political and economic obstacles for city managers as local business communities experience higher turnover rates, and greater funding must be allocated to municipal social programs where hourly wages fail to meet the cost of living. In response to the common scenario of state preemption in the context of minimum wage, this study provides four case studies: Flagstaff, Arizona; St. Louis Missouri; Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, Florida; and Greensboro and Durham North Carolina. In each case, urban minimum wage movements realized raised wages in fiscally conservative subnational environments. The city level is a promising stage for these initiatives, because cities house advocacy networks that can force legislative change either at the state or local levels and can lead ballot initiatives. This study finds that coalitions of workers, advocacy groups, and supporting government officials, referred to as “labor coalitions” throughout the report, are crucial to raising wages. Forming and bolstering these coalitions should therefore be central to any minimum wage increase movement. This report’s main contribution comes in the form of a set of strategies that labor coalitions can use to achieve minimum wage increases, as depicted in Figure 1 below (reference page 5 for more details). Figure 1: Local government strategies to achieve minimum wage increases Introduction Why must minimum wages change? Why start at the city level? This study examines local minimum wage The city serves as a promising starting movements within contexts of state point for these initiatives because it preemption. Despite increases in worker harbors urban advocacy groups that can productivity and living costs nationwide, push legislative change either at the local the federal minimum wage has not level or scaled up to the state level. Cities increased since 2009 when it was set at can also draw on pools of grassroots $7.25 per hour (U.S. Dept. of Labor 2020). organizers, advocacy groups, unions, and As the federal minimum wage does not local government support to push for appear likely to increase, municipalities legislative action at the municipal or state and states must take the lead. Many level, or to bring these issues to voters at states have preemption laws that prohibit either jurisdictional level through municipalities from enacting local democratic processes. ordinances setting the minimum wage Why is finding a solution important? higher than the state minimum (see Figure 2). This study demonstrates that even in Higher wages can reduce turnover among such environments, coalitions can form to private employers and reduce demand for raise wages and effect positive change. social services provided by local government. This report aims to provide a Figure 2: States with minimum wage resource for local advocacy groups and preemption laws local governments when they know preemption is a possibility or reality in their state. Four case studies of city-level coalitions that succeeded in raising wages within fiscally conservative states are examined in this report. Findings highlight disenfranchised workers’ advocacy that expands to political movements are crucial to raising wages in all four cases. Source: Economic Policy Institute (2019). Worker rights preemption in the U.S. https://www.epi.org/preemption-map/ 1 Parameters & Case Studies Parameters Framework Geographies Sources We used the following We chose seven cities We used a mixture of framework to understand that represent different public information and how these coalitions minimum wage increase interviews were formed and the strategies used in states • Public Information: level of government at hesitant to increase local news, academic which success was minimum wages: literature, social achieved: • Flagstaff, AZ media, advocacy group 1. History and Context • St. Louis, MO websites 2. Relevant Stakeholders • Miami, Tampa, & • Interviewed individuals 3. Coalition Formation Orlando, FL for: background 4. Coalitions’ Political • Greensboro & Durham, information, Flagstaff Strategies NC case study, Florida case study 5. Level of Government Case study summaries (linked to detailed case studies in appendix) Case Study #1: Flagstaff, Arizona organizations, such as the National (2016) Employment Law Project and ROC United. The coalition’s strategy emphasized voter In 2016, local organizers led a education through social media outreach legislative effort against state and door-to-door canvassing to secure preemption, resulting in a wage the ballot initiative in 2016. The outcome increase through a ballot initiative (Prop was the passage of local Prop 414 and 414). This scheduled a minimum wage the defeat of local Prop 418, with local raise to $15 by 2021. Two years later, in wages scheduled to reach $15 by 2021. 2018, the same coalition defended the raise against an oppositional amendment (Prop 418). Eva Putzova, a Case Study #2: St. Louis, Missouri City Council member, headed the (2017) coalition. Support came from college In 2013, a fast-food worker incident students involved via the Sustainable prompted organizing under the guidance Communities Department at Northern of SEIU and JWJ, leading to the City Arizona University, as well as from passing an ordinance in 2015 to raise the activists from the Flagstaff immigrant minimum wage incrementally to $11.00 community, many of whom worked in by 2018. This increase was contested for hospitality. Secondary support came from two years until the Missouri Supreme nonprofits and labor Court upheld it in May 2017. 2 Case studies (cont’d) However, the Missouri state legislature place during the coronavirus pandemic preempted the ordinance in August 2017. and because organizers ensured that the This was followed by two movements. amendment was put forth to voters, First, the Mayor, along with coalitions that despite the state introducing legislation had been fighting for the increase (Fight that increased the cost of sponsoring a for 15, JWJ), ran and promoted a ballot initiative (Eskamani, 2020). campaign called Save The Raise, asking business owners to raise their minimum wage voluntarily. This resulted in around Case Study #4: Greensboro (2015) 100 businesses pledging to do so. At the and Durham (2016), North Carolina same time, movements on the state level Local governments in North Carolina only started gaining momentum. The state have control over the wage rates of their movement, Raise Up Missouri, collected own employees. They are unable to enact signatures to enter a proposition on the legislation raising the minimum wage ballot titled Prop B. The St. Louis mayor above the state minimum for private at the time, along with local level sector workers. Greensboro coalition advocates and unions, supported this members included Working America, the action and advocated for their residents community affiliate of AFL-CIO, and to sign the petition. This led to the state- multiple single-issue grassroots level Prop B winning the vote for a organizations. Durham coalition members minimum wage raise to $12 by 2023. included Raise Up, the southern arm of Fight for $15, and UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Case Study #3: Tampa, Orlando, and Union. Coalition members worked to Miami, Florida (2020) convince city council members to increase Amendment 2, a Florida ballot initiative the minimum wage for municipal that will phase in a $15 minimum wage employees, and in Durham organizers by 2026, passed in 2020. A state-wide campaigned for private businesses to coalition consisting of grass-roots urban voluntarily pay a living wage. In 2015, organizers, state-level advocacy groups, Greensboro city council adopted a $15 national unions and union-like minimum wage for city employees by organizations, such as SEIU or Fight for 2020, with Durham city council following $15, and some city representatives acting in 2016. Interestingly, council members as private citizens led the movement. claimed moral instead of political John Morgan, a wealthy Florida attorney, authority when discussing their decisions also donated an estimated $6 million, and expressed hope that local although he was less involved in voter government could act as an example for outreach (Associated Press, 2020). private businesses to pay a living wage. Florida’s example of urban labor The voluntary campaign in Durham coalitions in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami resulted in nearly 100 businesses signing coalescing at the state level is especially on to pay their workers a living wage. noteworthy because voter outreach took 3 Key findings Process of coalition success Proponents of minimum wage increases that are part of coalitions can be separated into main actors and supporting actors. These two categories