Economic development typically is tied to “incentives” in the form of subsidies, such as tax credits, industrial revenue bonds, loan guarantees, enterprise zones, tax increment financing (TIF), preferential utility rates and low-interest public loans. Every year, state and local governments give billions of taxpayer dollars to private companies in the form of contracts for goods and services to attract industry and advance industrial policies.
Contractors and developers who receive public money should be required to comply with federal, state and local laws and ordinances, including laws regarding health and safety, wage and hour laws and employee licensing requirements. And states and local bodies must ensure taxpayers get their money’s worth by holding contractors accountable for the way they spend taxpayer dollars—making sure taxpayer money is not wasted on poorly paying jobs that drive down collectively bargained wages and worker protections. The goal of legislation affecting economic development is to ensure public money is not wasted.
A key part of community development is ensuring workers are paid a living wage. Living wage laws have been enacted in more than 100 communities around the country. While many of these laws focus on requiring government contractors and subsidy recipients to pay their workers a living wage, there are some living wage laws that have included provisions that go beyond wage mandates—“Living Wage Plus” provisions.
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