The Nonprofit Acting as a Watchdog for Wages

As Nashville becomes increasingly expensive, one local nonprofit is acting as a watchdog for wages in the city. 

Stand Up Nashville recently incorporated volunteer organization Nashville Living Wage’s certification program into its Good Jobs Nashville initiative. Through the program, small businesses and nonprofits in Nashville can apply to receive certification proving they pay what’s considered a living wage for the city. 

To obtain the living wage certification, businesses must be in line with United Ways of Tennessee’s ALICE Report, which classifies Nashville’s living wage as $22.10 per hour without health insurance benefits and $20.10 per hour with benefits. (ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed.)

The application notes this is what they call a “survival wage” rate for Davidson County and is considered the bare minimum wage needed for workers. The ALICE Report considers Davidson County’s “stability wage” $33.65 per hour — a rate they say is often unattainable for many small businesses in the area. 

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As of this writing, 40 businesses are certified through the program. These include nonprofits like Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Tennessee Justice Center, as well as restaurants like Tantísimo and Fait la Force Brewing, among other organizations. 

Good Jobs Nashville also has a job board on its website featuring listings from vetted companies demonstrating a “commitment to investing in Nashville’s working-class families and communities.”

“We’re just trying to give something back to the people in the city, because we know what people are dealing with in this economic crisis right now, and we want people to be able to survive and stay in the city of Nashville,” says Nathaniel Carter, director of workforce and employment at Stand Up Nashville, who previously sat on the board for Nashville Living Wage. 

Carter says ensuring workers are paid a living wage has become even more important as rent and grocery prices skyrocket despite Tennessee’s minimum wage having remained at $7.25 — the federal minimum — since 2009. In the state legislature, Democratic lawmakers make yearly attempts to raise the minimum wage, though the efforts have always been shot down by the state’s Republican supermajority. 

Carter also says he understands there are small businesses that might not be in a position to pay a living wage, but if they are striving to get there, Stand Up Nashville wants to help them reach that goal.

“We want everybody to apply who feels that they can get up to the living wage threshold, and if they have any barriers, we’re going to have monthly meetings with these small business owners,” he says. “We’re going to have an ecosystem where we can actually sit down, have conversations, and hopefully find resources to help these small businesses grow into what they want to become.” 

Stand Up Nashville strategic campaigns coordinator Isaac Swafford says part of the organization’s mission is to promote small businesses — and to ensure that the small businesses that give Nashville character stay open as the city grows and large corporations like Oracle set up shop. 

“It’s a two-way street,” says Swafford. “We need to invest in one another, and if we continue selling out Nashville to the lowest bidder in these large corporations, we’re all going to lose.”

The exact wage considered “livable” varies. A 2025 Metro Social Services report found that about 200,000 workers in Davidson County are making less than the living wage — which, they say for Nashville, is roughly $53,000 a year. That makes up about half of Nashville workers, the report says. Meanwhile, Metro Social Services released a report this year that found more than half of employed Black Nashvillians make less than $50,000 per year.