The 2025 Living Wage Rate is $23.15/hr, and employers who attain this wage floor are eligible for ‘Leading’ Living Wage Certification with Just Economics of WNC. This rate represents the wage floor that would allow a single person working full-time to qualify for a 1BR apartment in the Buncombe County area. Just Economics uses a four-year rolling average of the Fair Market Rent (FMR) as determined by HUD to calculate this hourly wage used for Living Wage Certification. In its third year as part of our program, the ‘Pledged’ level of certification is available to employers who are dedicated to achieving living wages in the future, and can be joined by paying the entry rate of $19/hr with a commitment to increasing wages 3% + annual rate of inflation each year they remain Pledged. In 2024, Living Wage Certified and Pledged employers reported $1.4 Million in annual wages raised to meet our program criteria, an incredible achievement for our community and region. We are confident that our employers and this program will continue to raise the wage floor in WNC during this critical time of recovery for our local businesses and workers.
Additionally, Just Economics is excited to introduce Dual Certification with Living Wage for US, a national Living Wage organization and close partner to Just Economics. Based on their internationally recognized methodology of calculating holistic cost of living assessments and living wage rates for all U.S. counties, dual certification is a fantastic opportunity for multi-geographic employers, or those with benefits that they wish to see credited towards the Living Wage. Even for employers who do not ultimately become certified, the groundbreaking remuneration tool used to calculate the value of benefits to employees acts like a compass for employers to discover how to optimize their wages and benefits using their compensation budgets from a living wage perspective.
Dual Certification, as well as the continuation of the two-tiered ‘Leading’ and ‘Pledged’ programs, strengthens our alignment with Living Wage for US, and by extension our links to international Living Wage initiatives and programs like B-Corp. Our growing partnership is an enormous step forward for the WNC Living Wage movement, as it enables us to more precisely guide employers on pro-worker policies, and with employers at a larger scale of geography or employees.
Just Economics certifies employers in Western North Carolina using two different sets of wage criteria–one for Buncombe County and a separate wage rate for the rural counties in Western North Carolina. The 2025 Living Wage Rate for employers in rural counties outside of Buncombe County in Western North Carolina will be announced shortly.
While we normally ask employers to renew their certification at intervals no greater than every two-years, Living Wage Certified Employers who were due for recertification in 2025 will now have until 2026 to complete the process. This extension applies to employers whose certification status was current as of June 30, 2024, or who apply for recertification during the extension period. Additionally, employers certified for two years in 2023, who were originally due for recertification in 2025, will now have their recertification deadline moved to 2026. All other employers, including those whose certification has lapsed or who are new to the program, can apply in 2025 under the full requirements of the program, based on the 2025 Living Wage Rate.
These changes serve to recognize the commitment that these employers made to Living Wages prior to the storm, support the local small business economy in its recovery to avoid replacement by non-local or larger corporations, and ensure that the Living Wage Certification program remains intact during this difficult time so that it can continue to positively impact the wage floor in years to come.
The Just Economics Living Wage Certification Program began in 2008. The model used for certification was based on the Tompkins County Workers Center in Ithaca, New York. Over the last sixteen years, the program has grown to include hundreds of Western North Carolina employers, and is the largest such program in the nation, and Just Economics leads the national Living Wage Network.
