When the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously in late September 2025 to create the Healthy Workplace Program, it set a new standard for employers. The program, housed within the New Orleans Health Department, is designed to recognize workplaces that offer living wages, healthcare access, paid leave and the freedom to organize.
For Step Up Louisiana, the community group that helped shape the policy, the vote marked a key milestone in a larger campaign known as the Workers’ Bill of Rights. The Healthy Workplace Program is the first major initiative to advance under that framework.
New Orleans voters approved the Workers’ Bill of Rights charter amendment on November 5, 2024, with about 80% support. The measure added workplace rights to the city’s Home Rule Charter and laid the groundwork for the Healthy Workplace Program.
“We all deserve access to good jobs that allow us to take care of ourselves, our family, and our community,” said Paulette Taylor, a member of Step Up Louisiana. “This win is a step forward for working people.”
A Creative Remedy
Because Louisiana bars municipalities from setting their own minimum wage or benefits requirements, local organizers needed a different path. Instead of looking to change laws, they decided to pursue a recognition-based model in hopes of shifting norms by highlighting employers already meeting stronger standards and by creating market incentives through public transparency.
“New Orleanians should have more power over how our businesses are run,” said Britain Forsyth, policy and research coordinator for Step Up Louisiana. “When we imagined the Workers’ Bill of Rights, we did not want to stop at just making a public statement. We created the Healthy Workplace Program as a creative way to take back power for working people and to recognize and incentivize employers who give their employees the work environment they deserve.”
In practice, the program gives workers and consumers a tool to evaluate employers and support those that prioritize employee well-being. “A healthy workplace benefits business leaders, working people, and consumers,” Forsyth said. “Our long-term goal is to raise labor standards in New Orleans and create a system where every employer adheres to the Workers’ Bill of Rights.”
Missing Protections
For the workers who informed the program’s design, the issues at stake are not abstract concepts. Many describe feeling vulnerable or even endangered in workplaces with few protections and limited ways to advocate for change.
“There are not enough rules, laws and policies in place to protect workers,” said Step Up Louisiana member Denise Augustine. “Without unions and organizations fighting alongside them, workers in isolation are afraid to speak up for themselves, even when advocating over violations such as overtime pay, sexual harassment and lack of workplace safety.”
Augustine pointed to emergency room nurses who regularly face unsafe conditions without adequate security or supplies.
“Many employers do not offer proper security and safety protocols for their workers, including not even having first-aid kits,” she said. “When we organize and see real progress like the Healthy Workplace Program — workers speak up.”
We Can’t Afford Not to Make Changes
For some workers, the lack of paid leave has led to devastating medical consequences. Terry Mogilles, a University Medical Center New Orleans nurse and member of National Nurses United, recalled caring for hospitality and construction workers who returned to their jobs far too soon because they needed the income.
“I had a patient who was a single mom to small children, and she could not afford to take off after an injury, so she continued to work in a boot and crutches,” said Mogilles. “Her inability to take off turned a small injury that would have healed into needing several more surgeries. Eventually, the woman had to lose her whole leg at 28 years old. This is a public health crisis when people do not have time to heal.”
While workplace initiatives often sit within economic or workforce offices, Step Up Louisiana insisted on placing the Healthy Workplace Program under the Health Department, arguing that labor standards and public health are inseparable.
The stress created by unstable or unsafe jobs, she added, reverberates far beyond the workplace.
“Imagine entering crisis mode every time things inevitably pop up and not having the time or money to address them,” she said. “When you have a healthy workplace, you have the ability to enjoy your life, address your health, go to the doctor, and also take a vacation without fear of losing income.”
What Counts as a Healthy Workplace?
Under criteria developed by Step Up and adopted by the Health Department, participating employers must:
- offer a living wage;
- provide or facilitate access to healthcare;
- offer paid leave; and
- allow employees to organize without intimidation.
“The program is a way for city officials to recognize local employers who support their employees’ well-being,” Forsyth said. “And a way for working people to evaluate employers to ensure they support their employees’ well-being.”
Augustine said these standards translate into something tangible.
“A healthy workplace looks like a place where employees are happy to come into work, who are grateful to work in such a positive environment,” she said, “and it looks like stability and a place where you want to work until you retire.”
Addressing the Lifespan Gap
Organizers argue that workplace conditions shape not only economic outcomes but also health disparities.
“In New Orleans, the residents of the wealthiest, majority white neighborhoods are living more than 20 years longer than residents of the poorest, majority Black neighborhoods,” Forsyth said.
A 2023 analysis by The Data Center found that the New Orleans metro area has some of the widest neighborhood-level life-expectancy gaps in the nation, with residents in the highest-income, majority-white neighborhoods living more than 82 years on average, compared with under 71 years in the lowest-income, majority-Black neighborhoods.
“The path to addressing the lifespan gap … starts with a healthy workforce,” Forsyth said.
What Stronger Standards Mean for Businesses
For employers already meeting high workplace standards, the Healthy Workplace designation offers public recognition, recruitment advantages and visibility through decals and a public directory. Participating businesses also join a network that shares resources related to benefits and worker support.
Concerns about cost, advocates say, overlook the financial value of stability.
“It is more profitable because employers can stop having to train people because their turnover is so high,” Augustine said. “A company’s success is actually tied to the employees’ investment in the company. If you pay people good money, they will work hard.”
Forsyth emphasized that small businesses wiould receive support, including guidance on meeting the criteria and access to shared resources.
“These aspirations and resource sharing are provided to employers through the Healthy Workplace Program,” she said.
A Framework for the Future
With the program adopted, Step Up Louisiana is now working to establish a Workers’ Commission to support ongoing dialogue between employers and employees and expand public understanding of workplace issues.
“We want to make sure workers can have public conversations with each other and employers about how they are treated, in addition to how they should be treated,” Forsyth said.
For Forsyth, the stakes are clear.
“Unregulated workplaces are killing us, and it is time to close that lifespan gap. We hope New Orleans employers, business associations and economic development organizations join us in establishing, promoting and supporting better workplaces for all New Orleanians.”
Kelly Hite is the associate news editor for Biz New Orleans, responsible for delivering daily business news on BizNewOrleans.com, focusing on developments that impact the greater New Orleans area and southeast Louisiana. She may be reached via email at KellyH@BizNewOrleans.com.
