Thirteen campaigns where OFW is fighting to end the subminimum wage and raise the floor for restaurant workers, grouped below into twelve state and local sections — California’s covers both the Alameda County and Los Angeles $30 drives. Click a state, or jump to the section. These are the same campaigns running through the Living Wage For All coalition that OFW co-leads at livingwageforall.org.
Maryland lets restaurants pay tipped workers a cash wage of $3.63 an hour. Across the city, one in three people who work in Baltimore — 104,950 of 314,125 — earn less than $25 an hour.
One Fair Wage is organizing for a $25 floor for every worker and backing Councilman John Bullock’s bill to phase out the tipped subminimum wage.
Rep. Ro Khanna speaks at the federal Living Wage For All Act launch. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
California already pays tipped workers the full state minimum wage plus tips — but the cost of living has outrun the floor. OFW is leading the coalition for a true living wage in California, backing the $30 ballot fights in Alameda County and Los Angeles and partnering with restaurant operators across the state on the RAISE High Road program. In Alameda County, a worker-led drive gathered more than 100,000 signatures and qualified the measure. On September 15, 2026, the Board of Supervisors voted 4–0 to place it on the ballot, and workers are organizing toward the election.
Our research shows California restaurants thrive at higher wage floors. The state's small-business restaurant employment growth has outpaced the national average in every year since the state ended its tipped subminimum in the 1970s.
OFW and state partners are building a statewide Living Wage For All coalition in Connecticut. The target: $25/hour for all Connecticut workers and an end to the tipped subminimum wage frozen at $6.38/hr since 2017.
Connecticut’s minimum wage is $16.94 — but the cost of living is $26.05 for a single adult. SB 221 cleared committee in 2024; the coalition is launching to finish what the committee started.
OFW D.C. ballot organizing — the same playbook is running again for $25.
D.C. proved One Fair Wage works. After Initiative 82, restaurant employment hit an all-time record (31,100 in June 2024) — the highest in 35 years — and tips did not decline. Now OFW is co-leading the next push: a $25/hour minimum wage for all D.C. workers, no subminimum carve-outs, on the Initiative 87 (2027 special election). Polling at 80%.
The campaign is led by OFW with UNITE HERE Local 25 and SEIU-1199.
Hawaiʻi’s minimum wage is $16.00. MIT puts the minimum living wage for a single-income household in Hawaiʻi at $40.60 an hour — more than double the state minimum wage.
Tipped workers here can still be paid below that $16 floor. One Fair Wage is part of the coalition working toward a constitutional amendment ending every subminimum wage, alongside $30 legislation.
Illinois OFW members at the federal Living Wage For All Act launch. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
Chicago passed the One Fair Wage Ordinance in 2023 — a historic OFW win phasing out the tipped subminimum. Restaurant employment in Chicago has grown since the change, not declined. The City Council paused the phase-out in May 2026, pushing full elimination to 2030 for restaurants with more than 21 employees and 2033 for those with 3 to 21; the ordinance stands and workers are organizing to restore the timeline. OFW is also organizing to build support for a statewide floor.
Illinois has been one of OFW's deepest-organized states, with multiple polling reports, a strong worker network, and a coalition of Chicago restaurant operators who've publicly endorsed the statewide push.
See IL research → · Full Illinois page → · Read the Chicago Success Story →
The cross-border D.C. model after Initiative 82. Maryland is next. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
Maryland is the Atlantic-coast next domino after D.C.'s historic 2022 Initiative 82 win. OFW is leading the Maryland coalition to end the tipped subminimum and raise the floor for 100,000+ restaurant workers — with polling, worker testimony, and a strong network of Maryland legislators.
Cross-border data from D.C. is decisive: restaurant employment and tips have hit record highs in D.C. since I-82 phased in, despite restaurant-lobby predictions of doom. Maryland workers are watching that data and asking when it's their turn.
OFW Michigan organizing — the network behind the 2024 court win.
Michigan workers qualified One Fair Wage for the 2018 ballot; the legislature gutted it and the state Supreme Court restored it in 2024. A February 2025 legislative deal then preserved a tipped subminimum wage instead of ending it. OFW is fighting to finish the job and build toward $25 for all by 2028.
163,000+ Michigan tipped workers — 74% women, 21% people of color. The fight is the most contested in the country.
94% of New York restaurant workers support One Fair Wage — an OFW survey of New York tipped workers, February 2024. The Living Wage For All NY Act (A10507) would deliver it, with a $30 floor by 2030 for large employers and an end to the tipped subminimum wage. OFW is the lead organizer on the campaign.
New York is also the densest concentration of OFW research: gender equity briefs, harassment studies, holiday-season disruption analyses, and the long arc of women excluded from minimum-wage protections in the state. The case is air-tight. The fight is in Albany.
Alaska’s minimum wage went to $14 on July 1, 2026. A single adult in the Nome Census Area needs about $24 an hour to cover basic costs.
High school juniors and seniors formed the Nome Living Wage For All Alliance and submitted a petition to the City of Nome on May 21 to raise the local minimum to $25, and the measure has qualified for the ballot.
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is still $7.25 — the federal floor, unchanged since 2009.
The MIT minimum living wage for a single-income household in Pennsylvania is $32.32 an hour. One Fair Wage and state partners are building a coalition for a $25 wage floor and an end to the subminimum wage.
Rhode Island’s minimum wage is $16.00 an hour. A single adult in Rhode Island needs $25.01 to cover food, housing, healthcare, and transportation.
A coalition is forming for $25 for all, and One Fair Wage is contributing to the effort.
The LW4A coalition is organizing in three more places: Baltimore — one in three people who work in the city earn less than $25 an hour, and the coalition is backing Councilman John Bullock’s bill to phase out the tipped subminimum wage while building support for a $25 city wage floor (LW4A Baltimore →); Nome, Alaska — a student-led alliance formed by high school juniors and seniors, petitioning to raise the local minimum to $25 from the Alaska state floor, which rose to $14 on July 1, 2026 (LW4A Nome →); and Rhode Island — a coalition is forming for $25 for all, with OFW contributing (LW4A RI →).
Don't see your state? OFW supports campaigns in many more — call us if you're organizing.
Join the movement