Last Updated: July 28, 2026
The Economic Opportunity and Fairness Act
American families deserve economic security and the opportunity to build wealth through honest work. It’s time our laws reflected that.
What it includes:
- A Localized Living Wage (Averaging ~$25/hour nationally)*
- The minimum wage will be dynamically pegged to 100% of the cost of basic survival in your specific county.
- In low-cost rural areas, it might be $18/hr. In high-cost cities, it might be $30/hr. The national average is ~$25/hour.
- Why $25/hr on average? If the minimum wage had simply kept pace with worker productivity since 1968, it would be over $25 today. We are simply returning the stolen productivity that has been siphoned off for 50 years.
- This mathematically protects rural small businesses from wage shock while ensuring nobody working full-time lives below the poverty line in their own town.
- Universal paid family and medical leave
- 12 weeks paid time for new parents, serious illness, or family care
- Every other developed nation has this; we should too
- Cost: $40B annually (less than we spend on a single aircraft carrier)
- Federal Job Guarantee
- Government offers job to anyone who wants one
- $25/hour + benefits, meaningful work in infrastructure, care work, environment, education
- Counter-cyclical: expands during recessions (when needed), shrinks during booms
- Private Sector Premium: Calibrated to ensure private-sector employment always offers a premium in wages or benefits. The guarantee serves as a safety net, not a competitor that drains essential private-sector labor.
- Performance Accountability: A guaranteed job is not a guarantee against being fired for cause. Participants who fail to meet output requirements or violate standards will be dismissed, ensuring taxpayer funds only reward productive labor.
- Transitional Stepping Stones: Real work with real output requirements—not permanent make-work. The program includes mandatory upskilling, and assignments are designed as transitional periods (e.g., 18-24 months) to propel workers into higher-paying private-sector careers.
- Paired with an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit so work always pays more than not working
- Cost: $340-680B depending on enrollment (see detailed analysis below)
- Net cost after savings: $179-536B
- Protect freedom of association and fair negotiation
- Remove government barriers that restrict employees’ constitutional right to organize
- Prohibit employer retaliation against employees who exercise their freedom of association
- Strengthen penalties for violations of existing labor laws (wage theft, intimidation, illegal terminations)
- Let employees and employers negotiate terms without excessive government mandates
What this means for you:
- Nobody working full time lives below the poverty line in their own town
- Time off when a baby is born, a parent gets sick, or you need surgery — without losing your job or going broke
- A guaranteed job at a living wage if you want one — no more being unemployed because the economy “needs” some unemployment
- Real consequences for wage theft, intimidation, and the abuses that have been quietly tolerated for decades
- Stronger bargaining position whether you’re in a union or not — because a labor market with options is a labor market that pays fairly