Per Albany Municipal Code Section 2-26 - Living Wage Ordinance, employees of City service contractors and subcontractors, and employees and contractors of City financial assistance earn an hourly wage that is sufficient to live with dignity and to achieve economic self-sufficiency. The City contracts with many businesses and organizations to provide services to the public, and provides financial assistance to developers and businesses for the purpose of promoting economic development and job growth. Such public expenditures should also be spent to set a community economic standard that permits workers to live out of poverty. The City Council finds that the use of City funds to provide living wage jobs will decrease poverty, increase consumer income, invigorate neighborhood businesses and reduce the need for taxpayer funded social service programs. Businesses located in Albany, but not doing business with the City are not required to comply with the Living Wage Ordinance.

The living wage calculation is as listed below:
(updated every July based on CPI published every April)
*CPI = Consumer Price Index (San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA)
** %Change - Per AMC Section 2-26.5.c., not to exceed 3% in any one year.

The Living Wage Ordinance INCLUDES the persons and entities described below if they employ more than ten (10) employees:

• For-profit service contractors which have at least ten (10) employees working a minimum of twenty (20) hours per week and receive contract(s) from the City for twenty-five thousand ($25,000.00) dollars or more within the City's fiscal year. Compliance shall be required during the term of the contract for all employees who perform at least twenty-five (25%) percent of the work arising from the service contract.
• Nonprofit service contractors which have at least ten (10) employees working a minimum of twenty (20) hours per week and receive contracts from the City of one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars or more within the City's fiscal year. Compliance shall be required during the term of the contract for all employees who perform at least twenty-five (25%) percent of the work arising from the service contract.
• Lessees of public property, licensees, concessionaires and franchisees which employ twenty-five (25) or more employees and have three hundred fifty thousand ($350,000.00) dollars or more in annual gross receipts. Compliance shall be required during the lease term for any employees who spend twenty-five (25%) percent or more of their compensated time on the leased property or engage in work directly related to the license, concession or franchise.
• City financial aid recipients that receive more than one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars in loans or other cash and/or non-cash assistance within the City's fiscal year. Compliance shall be required for a duration of one (1) year for each one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars of assistance, up to a maximum duration of five (5) years, following receipt of the aid for all employees who spend twenty-five (25%) percent or more of their compensated time engaged in work directly related to the purposes for which the City provided the aid.
• Subcontractors and sublessees of any of the entities or persons described in paragraphs a through d above.

The Living Wage Ordinance DOES NOT INCLUDE the following:

• Employees of another government agency, including without limitation, cities counties, state agencies, and public utilities.
• An employee participating in a temporary job training program approved by the City in which a significant component of the employee's training consists of acquiring specialized knowledge, abilities, skills or job readiness (e.g., the importance of proper work attire, punctuality and workplace demeanor).
• An employee who is in an internship or other job training program for which the employee is also receiving academic credit.
• An employee who is under eighteen (18) years of age.
• An employee of the City of Albany who is employed for a limited term to a regular or non-regular position including casual, seasonal and emergency appointments with no guarantee of continued employment beyond the initial hire season.
• Volunteers.
• Owners of a business who are also employees of the business and their immediate family members (spouse, domestic partner, parent, siblings and children).
• Employees who are standing by or on-call according to the criteria established by the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201. This exemption shall apply only during the time when the employee is actually standing by or on-call.
• Employees of contractors and subcontractors subject to the requirements of Division 2, Part 7, of the California Labor Code, for payment of prevailing wage when prevailing wage requires compensation greater than that required by this section.
• An employee for whom application of the requirements of this section is prohibited by state or federal law.
• An employee subject to a bona fide collective bargaining agreement where the waiver of the provisions of this section are set forth in clear and unambiguous terms in such an agreement.

NOTE: A Living Wage Ordinance IS NOT a Minimum Wage Ordinance.  For more information about Minimum Wage, please refer to the State of California Department of Industrial Relations Minimum Wage website.