SSOL Rules and Guidelines

SSOL is a formula, and like all formulas its output is only as reliable as the rules that govern its inputs. Three sets of rules define the system: how the calculation is built (Part 1), how it changes over time (Part 2), and how employers can offer alternatives to its components (Part 3). Together, these rules make SSOL transparent, tamper-resistant, and responsive to market reality.

Foundational principles

• Based on employer location, not employee residence. SSOL is calculated from the employer's clock-in location, using costs available within the defined commute radius.
• Publicly available pricing only. Every price used must be openly accessible to anyone without memberships, loyalty programs, coupons, or special conditions. See the FAQ for the full definition.
• One minimum wage. No part-time rate, no tipped rate, no gig-worker exception. Every worker is subject to the same floor.
• Tiered standards. A federal minimum standard sets the floor. States may add to it. Counties and cities may add to the state standard. Employers may exceed any standard they choose.
• Employer transparency. Workers receive a complete breakdown of SSOL allocations showing exactly what each component covers and where they can obtain it at the specified price.

Part 1 - The calculation

The commute radius

The SSOL calculation begins with a commute radius. The standard radius of 25 minutes of travel time from the employer's clock-in location, measured using real-time traffic data at the times employees are required to arrive - not at 3am on a Sunday. An employer who runs 6am shifts uses traffic conditions at 6am as the basis for the radius.

The radius is not a geographic circle drawn on a map. It is a time-based boundary that expands and contracts based on actual road conditions, transit schedules, and the designated transportation method. A tight urban area with dense transit may produce a smaller but more useful radius than a suburban sprawl area with few routes.

Commute time includes the full clock-in experience: travel time, plus any time required to enter the facility, pass through security, and reach the workstation or clock-in point. Employers cannot exclude the security line from the commute calculation.

Transportation method determination

The transportation method is not chosen by the employer in a declaration - it is determined by the employer's operational decisions. Three factors govern it:

• Schedule compatibility. If the employer's shifts end after public transit stops running, transit is not a viable method and cannot be used as the transportation basis.
• Clock-in location. The employer defines the effective commute radius by where employees clock in. An employer who establishes satellite clock-in hubs in lower-cost neighborhoods - with company shuttles to the worksite - can legitimately use the walking radius of those hubs as the transportation basis, provided employees are paid for shuttle time.
• Job conditions. Employers who require uniforms, tools, or physical demands incompatible with walking or cycling in applicable weather conditions cannot claim those methods as viable.

The entire commute time must also be reasonable. What constitutes a reasonable ratio is defined by the enabling legislation, not by the employer.

The radius defines the employer's cost obligation - not where employees are permitted to live. An employee who chooses to live outside the 25-minute boundary is making a personal decision. The SSOL calculation reflects what it costs to live within that boundary. Costs incurred beyond it are the employee's own choice and their own responsibility. SSOL does not tell anyone where to live. It tells employers what the floor is for the location they chose to operate in.

Employer-imposed costs

The SSOL baseline covers what any person needs to live and function in society. Any cost the employer creates through their specific requirements is added to that baseline. If an employer requires business formal attire, the clothing component reflects the cost of maintaining that wardrobe. If the employer requires employees to purchase their own uniforms, that cost is added to the clothing component - the employer cannot shift business costs to the employee without compensating them. If the role requires use of a personal vehicle for deliveries or client visits, the additional mileage and wear costs are added to the transportation component.

The rule is consistent: if the employer can discipline or terminate an employee for failing to meet a requirement, that requirement's cost belongs in the SSOL calculation for that employer. This includes occupational licensing: if the job requires a license to perform, the cost of obtaining and maintaining that license is added to the government requirements component for that employer. The license requirement is a condition of employment, which makes its cost the employer's obligation to cover.

Schedule certainty

SSOL's 2,000-hour standard assumes workers can actually reach 2,000 hours. For workers combining multiple jobs to get there, that requires schedule certainty at each job.

When a worker takes a job, they are given a schedule - say, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 1pm to 6pm. That schedule is now committed. When they take a second job, they list their availability around the first. The second job fills a different slot. A third job fills another. Each job knows exactly what it is getting. The worker has built a week that works.

Under SSOL, that schedule is fixed. The first employer cannot unilaterally move the shift to 10am without the worker's agreement - because doing so conflicts with a commitment the worker has already made to another job. A schedule change at one job requires renegotiating around every other job in the worker's week. The worker's other commitments have equal standing to the employer's operational preferences.

This closes a common abuse: an employer who dislikes their employee working multiple jobs can currently force a schedule change that makes the other jobs impossible, then offer the worker a choice between compliance and termination. Under SSOL, the fixed schedule is the worker's protection against exactly that. The employer who commits to 40 hours retains full scheduling flexibility - their worker is not splitting time elsewhere. The employer who offers fewer than 40 hours does not get to treat the remaining hours as theirs to control.

Pricing within the radius

Once the commute radius is established, every SSOL component is priced from within it. Housing costs must reflect what is actually available within the radius. Grocery pricing reflects stores accessible by the designated transportation method - if the method is walking or transit, bulk-purchase pricing is excluded because the worker cannot carry bulk quantities home. Healthcare pricing must reflect providers accessible within the radius and compatible with the worker's schedule.

Housing types

The housing component is not assumed to be a rental apartment. It reflects whatever type of housing has sufficient publicly available supply at the calculated price point to support the workforce demand. In rural areas that may be a mobile home or manufactured housing. In suburban areas it may be a mortgage on a starter home. In urban areas it is typically an apartment. The framework does not mandate a housing type - it prices whatever type is actually available in sufficient quantity in that market. The housing component is always calculated for a single occupant; it cannot assume a roommate or shared costs.

Part 2 - The price baseline methodology

This is the most important part of SSOL, and the part most likely to be misunderstood.

The SSOL price for each component is not the lowest available price, and it is not the average price. It is the lowest price at which sufficient supply exists to meet population demand, measured at the highest price point during the quarter.

Two protections work together here:

The supply threshold prevents outlier prices - in either direction - from distorting the baseline. Sufficient supply has a precise meaning here: supply meets or exceeds demand at that price point. If there are enough units, policies, or gallons available at a given price to cover everyone who needs them, that price qualifies. If supply at that price falls short of demand - meaning some portion of workers cannot actually obtain it regardless of willingness to pay - it does not qualify. This is the supply and demand curve intersection applied directly: the SSOL price is the lowest point on the supply curve where the line crosses demand.

A single apartment listed at $800 in a market where median rent is $1,100 does not change the SSOL calculation, because one unit cannot house the workforce - supply does not meet demand at that price. Equally, a single landlord briefly listing at $1,800 does not push the baseline up, because one unit at that price does not represent what workers actually have to pay. The governing body measures this intersection using existing federal data - Census housing counts, BLS employment figures, HUD vacancy rates - none of which requires new data collection.

The quarterly high prevents timing games. The SSOL uses the highest qualifying price point observed during the quarter, not the lowest or the average. If gasoline in a market ranged between $3.10 and $3.40 during a quarter, the SSOL uses $3.40. This prevents an employer or a supplier from engineering a temporary price dip - releasing cheap gas for two weeks, offering a handful of apartments at a below-market rate - to reduce the SSOL calculation for the period.

SSOL floats in both directions. When prices rise, the wage rises. When prices fall at sufficient scale, the wage falls. The adjustment happens quarterly on a published schedule. Workers and employers know when the next adjustment is coming and can plan accordingly. Downward adjustments for high priced items require advance notice before taking effect.

Part 3 - Employer substitutions

Employers may offer alternatives to any SSOL component. If the healthcare component of SSOL is $600 per month, an employer may offer a group plan that provides better coverage for the same $600 - the employee's paycheck shows $600 less in cash, but they receive a better benefit than the SSOL baseline. If the food component is $120 per week, an employer may offer a $140 grocery store card for the same $120 - the employee gets more food purchasing power.

The employee always has the right to decline any substitution and receive the cash equivalent instead. This decision can be revisited at each quarterly SSOL update. Substitution decisions cannot be a condition of employment - workers cannot be hired, promoted, or terminated based on which SSOL substitutions they accept or decline.

The employer's incentive here is worth understanding. Offering better substitutions is attractive to workers and improves retention. But the employer's deeper incentive is to lower the publicly available prices that drive SSOL - because only public prices affect the SSOL calculation. Private employer offerings help individual workers, but they do not move the baseline. Moving the baseline requires actually reducing what the market charges publicly.

Wage representation

Wages are expressed relative to SSOL rather than as fixed dollar amounts. An offer of SSOL + $2.00/hr means the worker earns $2.00 above the current floor, regardless of what the floor's dollar amount is at any given time. When SSOL adjusts, the total wage adjusts automatically. Similarly, SSOL × 1.15 means 15% above the floor, always.

This preserves the real value of negotiated wages above the floor without requiring renegotiation every quarter. The raise agreed to when SSOL was $18/hr still means the same thing when SSOL is $22/hr.

Salary exemptions from overtime are only valid for workers earning at least 3× SSOL. This prevents the practice of granting a small pay increase, reclassifying a worker as salaried, and extracting unpaid overtime. At SSOL of $20/hr, the salary threshold is $120,000 per year - genuinely professional compensation, not a management title used to avoid overtime law.