Compensation 275
wages of public employees or temporary employees working for public
agencies and employees working for quasi - governmental agencies such as
redevelopment authorities, school boards, hospital commissions, conven-
tion bureaus, or airports. In some cases, these employers are covered under
separate ordinances, and at other times they are included in the defi ni-
tion of public employer. Other workers covered by living wages include
employees working for contractors and subcontractors receiving public
contracts and tenants of fi rms who receive economic development assis-
tance. For example, a developer that gets a tax break to build a shopping
center is likely to rent space to tenants that employ low - wage workers. The
living wage must apply to those tenants and workers. Other ordinances
have been extended to agencies or fi rms that lease city or county property
such as businesses in or around airports and marinas where hotels, restau-
rants, and retail establishments are located.
Some living wage campaigns have exempted nonprofi t organizations
from its provision. However, as the examples provided indicate, employees
at such agencies provide critical services and are often the most in need
of a wage increase. Some local government campaigns have addressed
nonprofi ts in different ways. Sometimes the law sets a threshold level to
distinguish among nonprofi ts. The Ypsilanti, Michigan, living wage ordi-
nance exempts nonprofi ts employing fewer than ten workers; Los Angeles
exempted nonprofi ts if the compensation of their executive offi cer was less
than eight times the lowest wage paid workers in the organization. Wash-
tenaw County, Michigan, proposed a three - year phase - in and allowed non-
profi ts to petition local governments for either increased funding or special
hardship exemptions if no new funds were provided. The cities of St. Paul
and Minneapolis, along with the State of Maryland, have also exempted
nonprofi ts from their living wage laws.
The Dane County, Wisconsin, campaign acknowledged the need for
the county to increase funding to smaller nonprofi ts in the human service
areas, and efforts in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and Santa Cruz,
California, have won similar special funding pools. Multnomah County,
Oregon ’ s law, while not covering nonprofi t social service contracts, com-
mitted the county and the Living Wage Coalition to jointly lobbying state
and federal sources for increased funding for nonprofi ts to make living
wage coverage eventually possible.
In many nonprofi ts, the executive director ’ s salary is signifi cantly higher
than the employees providing direct services. In San Antonio, Texas, the
CEO of Parent/Child Inc. earned ten times the average salary of her
teaching staff, who earn $ 20,500 annually, which is $ 5,000 below the