Provide High-Quality, Stable, and Local Jobs

Localities should ensure that the limited jobs that data centers provide are high-quality, stable, and local.

Hiring

Localities should require data centers to hire full-time data center staff from the local population or partner with community organizations on first-source hiring programs. These employees should be directly employed by the data center operator and not hired as subcontractors. For construction jobs, localities should demand project labor agreements with a commitment that construction projects will employ local building trade union workers. Localities may also require prioritizing the hiring of underrepresented groups in specific industries or labor markets—such as women in construction or veterans.

Wages

Jobs should pay, at a minimum, a living wage adjusted annually for inflation. Ideally, wages should align with market-based standards tied to the state or regional median wage for the data center industry. There must be pay equity for equal work between contractors and the data center company’s own employees.

Benefits

Employers should be required to provide health insurance and cover at least 50 percent of the premium cost for each worker. Localities should also demand that data centers provide child care to all workers.

Health, Safety, and Well-being

Localities should regulate working conditions, including ensuring there is an adequate break room with strong health and safety standards.

Transparency

Localities should require data centers to give annual reports on labor demographic data, including number of full-time employees, subcontractors, and temporary workers. Include demographics such as race, gender identity, sexual orientation, education level, and pay and benefits data for each represented group. Include client overhead cost for the bill-rate per headcount of subcontracted worker, organized by job title.