Georgetown University students ended a nine-day hunger strike when the University administration agreed to improve wages for the low-paid custodial, food service, and security workers.
In December 2005, the Human Services Coalition of Dade County in Florida, issued a policy brief titled Nonprofits, Government, and the New War on Poverty: Beating the Odds in a Global Economy, which used the Standard to examine Florida’s human services sector from an economic and community perspective.
In 2005, New Jersey used the Standard to successfully lobby the state legislature to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.15 per hour.
This report card on the status of Connecticut women included the number of households living below the Self-Sufficiency Standard and made recommendations to advance women’s equality.
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) won a higher wage floor in contract negotiations after the Insight Center for Community Economic Development used the Self-Sufficiency Standard in a wage analysis of University of California service workers, entitled High Ideals, Low Pay: A Wage Analysis of University of California Service Workers.
Following the release of the Crittenton Women’s Union, now known as EMPath, Economic Mobility Pathways, 2005 report, Achieving Success in the New Economy: Which Jobs Help Women Reach Economic Self Sufficiency, EMPath established an online Hot Jobs for Women guide.
The nonprofit organization Alabama Arise led a coalition that successfully advocated for more progressive taxes, thereby increasing the income level at which families begin paying taxes.
A 2002 report, Income Adequacy and the Affordability of Health Insurance in Washington State, used the Self-Sufficiency Standard as a basis for assessing the affordability of public and private health insurance coverage programs.
In Washington D.C., the Standard was used in the 2000 Workforce Investment Act statute which requires that the Workforce Investment Board target job-training dollars in high-growth occupations and assess the quality of the jobs in order to meet the wage and supportive service needs of job seekers.
In 1997, Sonoma County, California adopted the Standard as its formal measure of self-sufficiency and as a benchmark for measuring success in welfare-to-work programs.