A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

How do worker centers—small, underfunded community organizations representing low-wage, largely immigrant workers—manage to win sweeping new labor protections across US cities and states? In A Baseline of Decency, César F. Rosado-Marzán draws on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis centered on Chicago's Arise Chicago to show how these "alt-labor" groups outperform politically by mobilizing social and symbolic capital: building solidarity among members; forging bridges to clergy, unions, lawyers, and lawmakers; and elevating workers' own voices. More than just study legislative strategy, Rosado-Marzán argues that worker centers are reshaping the moral economy of the labor market—building a more egalitarian, equitable, dignitarian, and democratic vision of work.