Minimum Compensation Law - San Francisco

On August 21, 2000, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a "minimum compensation" law that requires city service contractors, including nonprofit agencies, and leaseholders at San Francisco International Airport to pay workers at least $9 an hour. Wages will jump to $10 an hour next year followed by 2.5 percent raises for three more years. It also gives workers 12 paid days off and 10 unpaid days for family emergencies.

The plan will cover approximately 20,000 workers and widely considered to be one of the most ambitious.

A companion piece of the legislation will require covered employers to provide workers health insurance, join a city-run health insurance pool or pay into the City's public health system fund at the rate of $1.25 an hour per employee. This would cover about 30,000 employees.

The legislation is the result of a compromise between the Board of Supervisors and the mayor's office. For this reason the Board of Supervisors decided to dub it a "minimum compensation" law and not a "living wage" law, suggesting that $9 an hour is not a living wage in the Bay area. Supervisor Tom Ammiano had proposed a living wage law two years earlier that would have paid $11 an hour to some 31,000 workers.

More:

• View the text of the San Francisco Minimum Compensation Ordinance
• City of San Francisco Web Site
• University of California studies on the impact of San Francisco's living wage
• New Rules Project's Living Wage Section