The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, established in 1993, is the think tank, policy arm, and, on occasion, political organizer for the Los Angeles labor movement. Over the past 20 years, it has become one of the nation’s most innovative and effective forces for raising the incomes of low-wage private-sector workers. Arguably, no other think tank has come up with more ways to leverage the power of municipal government to create higher pay for America’s working class; no other community-organizing group has built more effective labor-environmental-neighborhood alliances; and no other lobbyist has a better record of persuading officials to enact not just progressive legislation but the kind of progressive legislation that has not been before enacted.

Former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Larry Frank calls LAANE “the most sophisticated and intelligent organization I’ve ever worked with when it comes to moving a policy agenda.”

As described by Harold Meyerson, “…in 1997… [LAANE] spearheaded a living-wage ordinance for employees of companies with city contracts. The legislation became the model for ordinances in more than 100 cities.”