After many months of advocacy and rallies at San Francisco City Hall, SEIU 1021, supported by SEIU 2015 and community partners, accomplished our goal of securing a 4.75% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)/cost of doing business (CDB) for our members working for nonprofits funded by the San Francisco Departments of Public Health, Homelessness, and Adult Probation, as well as 3.75% for all other City-funded nonprofits. 

Critically, we also achieved our goal of increasing the City’s minimum compensation ordinance (MCO) to $23 by fiscal year 2025! All City-funded nonprofit workers currently earning a wage lower than $18.93 will be brought up to that effective July 1; it will increase to $20.25 as of next July. SEIU 1021 estimates that these two policies together are worth approximately $42.55 million additional for San Francisco nonprofit workers this year alone.

“As frontline workers providing crucial services that San Francisco residents need – particularly the most vulnerable – and working to address some of the city’s most intractable problems, nonprofit workers deserve fair and equitable pay for the challenging work they do,” said SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford. ”We have long known that increasing the MCO and providing raises to our City-funded nonprofits is critical to ensuring that there are enough workers to actually fill the needed positions.”

Because the wages nonprofits can pay depend largely on the funding they get, political advocacy with local elected leaders to change the budget and funding rules is crucial to winning big victories for City-funded nonprofits. One important way members can contribute to these efforts is by signing up to pitch in to our Committee on Political Education (COPE). Even a small amount per paycheck helps elect leaders who support workers and hold them accountable to their promises. If you’re not already giving to COPE, please consider signing up now!

Thank you to everyone who showed up, came out, spoke up, and advocated with your elected leaders to help make this win happen! We also thank our coalition partners at SEIU 2015 and the San Francisco Central Labor Council for the unity and solidarity it took to make this happen. We are stronger together! Big thanks to Supervisors Connie Chan and Rafael Mandelman for championing this cause and Mayor London Breed for prioritizing it in her budget.