Commercial Enterprises

Unlike the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage, which has not kept pace with the rising cost of living, a living wage reflects the minimum earnings needed to meet a family’s basic needs while maintaining self-sufficiency. A living wage accounts for the housing, transportation, food, childcare, health insurance and other costs in a specific geographic area. The living wage for one adult with no children in metro Atlanta is just over $16.00 per hour, while adding children raises that requirement steeply. One adult with one child must earn a salary of $31.33 per hour to make a living wage, and costs only rise from there.^[7]

Neighborhoods flourish when residents have access to living wage jobs and the goods and services they need. Working to reposition disinvested legacy commercial and industrial districts, LISC ATL pools funding and technical support from a diverse set of investors and funders and then deploys these resources to stimulate economic revitalization and community vitality.

In partnership with national and local economic development agencies and analysts, LISC ATL helps communities identify unmet market opportunities. LISC ATL then works with community partners to tap into these opportunities to revive outdated factories, storefronts and infrastructure in business districts overcoming decades of abandonment and blight. This creates opportunities for business attraction and expansion in areas that are particularly accessible to economically isolated communities.

LISC ATL helps develop commercial enterprises that increase the number of employees making a living wage

How we do it:

We provide financing to large companies that are expanding or relocating to the Atlanta metro area, and through our support of these companies, ensure that living wage jobs are created. In doing so, we will consider the number of jobs and the starting salary, the type of jobs created, the potential for growth, and the potential for attainment of additional education and transferable skills.
We work with local development authorities to ensure our resources and efforts are concentrated in neighborhoods that most need them.
We will work with partners to create a low-cost predevelopment loan fund. Predevelopment capital is the most difficult for commercial real estate projects to obtain.