Nathan Newman shares a report he worked on for the Brennan Center for Justice on the impact of living wage legislation. This is the first study of its kind to interview administrators at a wide range of local governments that have actually implemented a living wage law and have had the time to assess the actual costs to their cities or counties. Major findings for those cities where a living wage law was adopted include: Increased contract costs by less than 0.1% of the overall local budget. Competitive bidding instituted for contracts. Increased public support for their economic development programs.