Living Wage
For All

Why OFW stood up LW4A

One Fair Wage is, by design, a restaurant and service worker organization. We organize 300,000 restaurant and service workers, we partner with 1,000 high-road small-business restaurant employers, and our state campaigns target the tipped subminimum wage and the broader restaurant industry floor. That is the work we are built to do, and it is the work that produced the historic wins of D.C. Initiative 82 (2022), the Chicago One Fair Wage Ordinance (2023), and the federal Living Wage For All Act.

But the subminimum wage is bigger than restaurants. Tipped restaurant workers, incarcerated workers, workers with disabilities, youth workers, parking valets, airport skycaps, nail salon technicians, gig drivers, sheltered-workshop workers — seven million Americans are paid below the federal minimum wage by law. Ending that architecture takes more than one industry’s organization. It takes a coalition.

In 2025, OFW convened that coalition. We named it Living Wage For All — a coalition of labor, faith, racial-justice, civil-rights, education, disability-rights, and immigrant-rights organizations — and built the strategy that turned the OFW state-by-state model into a multiracial national campaign. The result is a movement that can do what no single org could: pass a federal bill that ends every subminimum wage at once, while continuing to win the state-by-state fights that build the political case for it.

The federal bill: Living Wage For All Act (H.R.8555)

OFW and the LW4A coalition wrote the bill. Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-03) introduced H.R. 8555 in the House on April 28, 2026, alongside co-leads Reps. Analília Mejía (NJ-11), Chuy García (IL-04), and Lateefah Simon (CA-12) — with 30 House cosponsors and growing, including Reps. Khanna (CA-17), Jayapal (WA-07), Casar (TX-35), Tlaib (MI-12), and Norton (DC-AL). The public launch was held at the U.S. Capitol on April 28, 2026.

On June 25, 2026, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) launched the Senate companion on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol, cosponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). The Living Wage For All Act is now in both chambers of Congress. The Washington Post broke the Senate-launch story that morning; six more outlets followed by end of day.

What the bill does, in three core provisions:

• $25 federal floor, phased in. First-year floor of $12/hour. Large employers (500+ workers or $1B+ revenue) reach $25 by 2031. Smaller employers by 2038. Indexed thereafter to two-thirds of the national median wage so the floor never freezes again.
• End all subminimum wages. No carve-outs for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, youth workers, or any other category. One floor, every worker.
• Indexed to real wages. Never frozen for 17 years again. The federal minimum has not moved since 2009 — the bill ends that pattern by design.

Read the federal bill page on the LW4A site →

Recent moments

The campaign broke through nationally this summer. The New Republic built a national feature on the coalition’s core argument — the affordability crisis is a wage crisis (July 16). The Washington Post broke the Senate launch. KALW profiled the workers behind Alameda’s $30 fight. Two Capitol Hill events in the last week of June defined the current chapter.

“We’re not asking for a handout. We’re asking for what’s fair, what’s right… Work must mean a livable wage for all.” — Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL-01), $7.25 vs. $25 Grocery Giveaway, June 29, 2026

The steering committee

Five national organizations lead LW4A:

See the full coalition on the LW4A site →

Endorsers

Selected national endorsers of the Living Wage For All Act. The full 100+ organization coalition includes labor, faith, civil-rights, disability-rights, education, and immigrant-worker organizations across the country.

… and 80+ additional national, state, and local endorsers.

Endorse the Act at livingwageforall.org →

The state campaigns

LW4A coordinates thirteen state and local campaigns across thirteen states and jurisdictions — the same fight, fought at the level where it can actually win first. Each one is winnable. Together they build the federal mandate. Click any campaign to go to its full page on the LW4A site.

See all thirteen campaigns on the LW4A site →

Why a coalition

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. The National Restaurant Association — the lobby that has spent four decades blocking every meaningful raise — runs the same three arguments against every state and city campaign, and the same opposition runs in Congress against every federal proposal. The arguments lose when voters actually hear them in engaged debate. The arguments win when they go unanswered.

LW4A exists to answer them. A 100+ organization coalition is not symbolic. It is the operational capacity to run, simultaneously, the federal bill campaign, the state ballot fights, the state legislative pushes, the press strategy, the research case, the worker testimony program, the employer engagement, and the digital field operation — in every state where this fight is live. No single organization, including OFW, has the standing capacity to do all of that. The coalition does.

How to engage

If you are an organization that wants to endorse the federal bill, sign onto the coalition, or co-sponsor a state campaign: endorse the LW4A coalition.

If you are an individual who wants to join the movement and get state action alerts: join Living Wage For All.

If you are a restaurant worker who wants to plug into the OFW side of the fight: become an OFW member — free, with services, legal help, and worker community.

If you are a press contact: see our press page for OFW coverage, or contact LW4A directly via livingwageforall.org.