Living Wages & Labor Protections

Vision

For more than fifty years, organizations in the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation have advanced a vision of work grounded in dignity, cooperation, and care.  From early living-wage campaigns to ongoing efforts across Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Colorado, and California, our organizations have challenged economic systems that undervalue labor and disconnect wages from the real cost of living. These campaigns begin with listening: to cafeteria workers skipping meals, custodians juggling multiple jobs, and caregivers struggling to make ends meet despite decades of work in the labor market. By grounding policy fights in lived experience, local leaders assert a simple principle with broad appeal: work should sustain life, not exhaust it.  

Rooted in relational accountability — with worker associations, employers, public institutions, and communities -- IAF labor leaders build broad-based coalitions that cross race, class, and faith, translating personal hardship into collective action that reshapes local labor markets. Whether defending wage standards, organizing school bus drivers and cafeteria workers, or confronting exploitative contracting practices, these efforts push back against a culture that treats care work as disposable and low-wage labor as inevitable. The results extend beyond individual workers: stronger wage standards stabilize families, strengthen regional economies, curb corporate abuse, and rebuild trust in democratic decision-making. By insisting on fair pay and public accountability, West/Southwest IAF organizations elevate work as a shared civic responsibility.

Impact

1. Combating Wage Theft in Colorado

   Coloradans for the Common Good (CCG) won an ordinance to extend subpoena power in wage investigations, strengthening enforcement of Denver’s wage protections.

2. Securing Dignified Wages for Caregivers in California

   At the urging of Marin Organizing Committee, the Marin Board of Supervisors increased the wage floor for In-Home Support Services Caregivers to $21/hour by 2027. Leaders aim to increase the floor to $26 per hour.

3. Raising Public Sector Wages Across the West & Southwest

   Organized leaders have won living wage standards for city, county, school district, and community college workers in Austin, Baton Rouge, Del Rio, Denver, El Paso, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Tucson.

4. Holding Tax-Subsidized Corporations Accountable for Living Wages in Texas

   COPS/Metro and Central Texas Interfaith championed ordinances requiring companies that receive municipal tax incentives to pay living wages and provide benefits.