LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy) was part of the Raise the Wage coalition to raise the minimum wage for almost 900,000 people in the Los Angeles region in 2015. Building on this local momentum, Governor Jerry Brown signed a California statewide minimum wage of $15 per hour into law on April 4, a victory that resulted from minimum wage wins in various cities across the country such as San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Several funders supported the LA effort directly, including the California Wellness Foundation and the California Community Foundation.
However, we drew most of our resources to cover our work on the campaign from foundations that provide us with general support, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Weingart Foundation.
Foundations have helped us and our allies to raise the minimum wage in LA in two major ways:
1. More than ever, funders are recognizing the importance of nonprofit organizations working together collaboratively to build a network. To help move the dial on progressive issues, a regional network needs to be broad and robust.
In working to raise the minimum wage across Los Angeles County, LAANE was part of the Raise the Wage coalition led by the County Federation of Labor, which included unions, local nonprofits, worker centers and numerous community organizations working toward the common goal of lifting hundreds of thousands of Angelenos out of poverty.
Los Angeles County’s population is approximately the size of Ohio. Given that scale, no major victory can be won by one organization alone.
2. Foundations are increasingly looking at how multi-year, general operating support creates opportunities for organizations to work on long-term planning that results in advocacy and organizing wins.
Multi-year, core support allows us to respond nimbly and quickly jump into campaign work as new opportunities to build power for low-wage workers arise.
These have also enabled us and our allies in the region to win the campaigns that helped to lay the groundwork for the minimum wage victory, including the original living wage victory or the more recent hotel workers’ policy. Those kinds of policy wins, over many years, helped create the context for an across-the-board victory that accomplishes real scale and begins to address the profound income inequality in our region.
As Judy Belk, CEO of the California Wellness Foundation, said in a blog about the positive impacts on health outcomes for low wage workers, “Let’s be real: Living on the current minimum wage of $10 an hour is not enough to survive, let alone thrive. Do the math. Workers and their families in California and across the nation deserve the dignity of a fair wage.”
This support from funders is impacting working people. After Los Angeles raised the minimum wage in June 2015, LAANE continued working with the Raise the Wage coalition to advance minimum wage increases in other neighboring cities. City councils in Santa Monica, Long Beach and Pasadena voted to raise the minimum wage in January 2016.
As funders support regional coalition-building and general operating grants that can further long-term strategy, LAANE and our allies look forward to continuing to champion working people.
“Earning a living wage of $15 per hour gives you your life back,” said Rafael Sanchez III, a Teaching Assistant at LAUSD. “To survive in L.A. on low wages, you’re basically always working to pay the bills. It means you put your dreams on hold. Knowing I’m on track to earn $15, I can now focus on my goal of becoming a teacher.”
Roxana Tynan is executive director of LAANE. Follow @LAANE and @NCRP on Twitter.
Image by Eric Carcetti, modified under Creative Commons license.
Leave a Reply