Peach State politicians on both sides of the aisle like to tout Georgia as the best state in the country to do business with. But a new report from Oxfam America says Georgia could be one of the states with the worst working conditions.
“If you want to come out here and run a big company, I’m sure that would be great,” said Hannah Perkins, Georgia AFL-CIO policy and campaigns director. “The stats show it would be great. However, the numbers show and what people are saying is that it’s not the number one place to work.”
The report ranks Georgia the nation’s #50 best place to work, although Georgia’s inclusion of Washington DC and Puerto Rico doesn’t place it last — Mississippi and North Carolina fare worse.
Oxfam condemned Georgia for its low minimum wage of $7.25, which is as low as is legally possible to pay most hourly workers in the United States. Oxfam says this accounts for just under 19% of the cost of living for a family of four in Georgia.
In response to the study, the Georgia Department of Labor released statistics showing that the average wage in Georgia in 2022 was $18.43, which is nearly 48% of the cost of living for a family of four.
The department’s communications director, Shawna Mercer, also noted Georgia’s low unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, compared to the country’s 3.8 percent. This ranks Georgia 29th nationally, but 3rd among the 12 states with a population of more than 8 million.
She said Georgia added more than 88,000 jobs between July 2022 and 2023, ranking 11th among the states in that statistic.
However, Oxfam America found that those jobs in Georgia pose a much greater risk to the workers who hold them than in other states. Georgia lost points for its employee protection policy, ranking 49th on this metric. While researchers gave the state some credit for introducing some safeguards, such as child labor protection, Georgia lost points for many measures it does not require, such as paid sick leave, advance notice of shift planning or a heat protection standard for outside workers.
“Elected officials and everyone at the top can just read these stats, they’re more than stats to us,” Perkins said. “These are people, this is their life, and we want to ensure that every worker has the right to a well-paid job, a secure workplace where they are free and can organize fairly if they want to.”
Georgia certainly received no points for its friendliness to organized labor. Oxfam found that the state has a so-called “right to work” law, does not provide for collective bargaining and wage bargaining for teachers, does not protect workers from retaliation for wage theft, and does not mandate collective bargaining for public workers.
“If we look at wages, workers in unions earn 18% more,” Perkins said. “We also ensure that there is better health care and safer jobs, especially as we have a right to work.”
The researchers found that the average working Josephine in Georgia may be slightly better off than the working Josephine.
Georgia ranks 49th out of 52 in the report for employed women, ahead of Mississippi, Alabama and North Carolina.
The auditors gave Georgia some credit for requiring paid pumping breaks for breastfeeding workers and for requiring equal pay for all sexes and races. However, they found that Georgia lacks measures to support women that exist in other states, including protections from sexual harassment in state law. Labor protection for domestic workers and paid family leave.
Oxfam noted that most of Georgia’s neighbors are not setting a good example. Overall, Tennessee is 45th, North Carolina 52nd, South Carolina 49th, and Alabama 48th.
Virginia had the highest score in the Southeast at 28th, with a minimum wage of $12 an hour, which is 29.5% of the cost of living for a family of four, and Florida was 30th with a minimum wage of 2.5% of the cost of living a family of four not far behind $11, which accounts for just under 28% of the cost of living.
According to the report, California performed best. Minimum-wage workers there are paid US$15.50 an hour, which accounts for more than 34.25% of the median cost of living, and workers there enjoy some statutory benefits that Georgians don’t have.
