With an incoming U.S. federal government likely to be hostile to organized labor, states like California could play a greater role in trying to advance labor rights.
Los Angeles, for example, has adopted a $15 an hour minimum wage.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says workers still have allies in states and cities across the country who are not giving up the fight to improve workers' lives, whether they are in unions or not.
[Mayor Eric Garcetti]: "In Los Angeles there were 600,000 people who got a raise - and most of them are not union members yet. So we know we are doing this for our brothers and sisters who don't have the luxury yet of a union - don't have that voice behind them."
Garcetti echoes what many state and local leaders already know - that what's good for workers and their unions is good for America and the economy.
[Mayor Eric Garcetti]: "We know this is good for business. We looked in Los Angeles before we raised the wage and every city that had done this hadn't lost jobs. They added jobs. Now why? Because when people who are just skating by - who are making excruciating decisions - do I buy some shoes for my kids before the school year starts or do I put food on the table? Do I pay off my phone bill or can I make the rent?
They're not going to put this money in a bank account. This is the money that goes into our economy."
Garcetti says raising worker wages and defending union rights isn't some radical uncharted territory. It's good old fashioned American values.
[Mayor Eric Garcetti]: "We're not actually trying to find some brave new territory, some new policy area. We're returning to some old fashioned American values that say if you work you should be able to support your family. If you work, you should have benefits.
If you get wronged on the workplace you should have somebody who has your back and is your voice in a union.
I'm a union member. I'm the grandson of two union members who are immigrants to this country. My other grandfather opened the first union shop making clothes in Los Angeles because he understood that a happy workforce that is represented by our democratic values is a better workforce."