In coordination with parters at the Raising Wages North Carolina coalition, Just Economics’ Living Wage Program Coordinator Sam Stites wrote an op-ed to provide policy recommendations to lift North Carolina from it’s ranking as the worst state to work. It was originally published on September 28, 2026, in the Raleigh News & Observer, the Durham Herald Sun, and the Charlotte Observer.
If you are in North Carolina, you are in a state where almost one million workers can’t cover basic needs on their wages. If you live here, you reside among people who have had wages illegally withheld or are paid below the minimum wage because they have a disability or work for unguaranteed tips. You pass farms where workers—including children — labor for extended hours without heat or safety protections. In your community, working caregivers are unable to either afford professional care for their loved ones or to leave their jobs to provide unpaid care themselves.
If you are in North Carolina, you are in the worst state to work in the nation. This is not a matter of opinion. Oxfam’s recently released 2026 Best States to Work report marked the seventh consecutive year that North Carolina has held the bottom spot.
Beyond simply looking at median wages, inflation, or unemployment rates to determine a state’s ranking, Oxfam surveys 37 labor policies across all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, under the umbrellas of wages, protections, and rights to organize unions. The Raising Wages North Carolina coalition has recommendations to close major gaps in each respective category.
Raise the minimum wage and abolish the subminimum wage: The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and was last raised 17 years ago in 2009. D.C., Puerto Rico and 30 states have set higher minimum wages, but our state has not. The NC Budget & Tax Center estimates that statewide, a single adult with zero children would either need to earn $20.30 per hour full-time (nearly triple the minimum wage) to avoid going into debt or foregoing necessary living expenses, such as food and healthcare—or to work 112 hours per week at minimum wage (there are 168 hours in a week).
The North Carolina General Assembly has the authority to raise the minimum wage in the next session, or return control to counties and municipalities by lifting preemptions that block local governments and voters from doing so.
Adopt statewide paid family and sick leave: All North Carolinians get sick. All of us will need to provide care for a loved one — whether a newborn, an aging parent, or a sick child. Yet, over one million NC workers lack access to paid sick leave. Paid family leave is even less accessible, requiring workers to make dangerous choices, such as leaving a loved one unattended, returning to work days after giving birth, or leaving work without a guarantee they can return.
North Carolina can implement pro-worker, pro-family policy that supports everyone in our state. Lawmakers can look to our partner, the North Carolina Families Care coalition for resources. They can also look to our neighbor Virginia, which has risen 32 spots since its own last place ranking in 2019, and who recently enacted a sweeping Paid Family Leave insurance program.
Restore organizing rights to all workers: On average, a unionized worker earns 12.8% more in wages than a peer in a nonunionized workplace. Yet, in North Carolina, public employers are prohibited from engaging in collective bargaining with labor unions, and public workers do not have protections for striking. Not only are these restrictions detrimental to the working conditions and compensation of public workers (which include local government administrators and utility crews, public school teachers, custodians, bus drivers, and anyone employed by a state or local government), but they also compromise the wellbeing of the millions of North Carolinians served by this sector.
These prohibitions are intended to sabotage the bargaining power of public sector unions, and contribute to a perception that unions do not exist in the public sector at all. Contrary to this stubborn myth, North Carolina public workers can join their unions—the North Carolina “Public Workers Service Union” (UE Local 150) and “Association of Educators” (NCAE).
If you are in North Carolina, you deserve better than the worst. How lawmakers can prioritize the wellbeing of North Carolina workers is not a mystery. What is, is whether lawmakers will recognize and admit their failure, and correct it with fierce action to improve policy for workers. Time will tell. Workers will listen.
Sam Stites works at Just Economics of WNC and is a Transylvania County-based labor advocate and member of the Raising Wages North Carolina coalition.