Living Wage Cost of Living Adjustment 2026
The Living Wage Ordinance (2.121) provides, at 2.121.030 (b), that the wage shall be upwardly adjusted each year no later than March 1st in proportion to the increase in the Annual Average Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) in the Boston area, as published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. For calendar year 2025, the CPI-U increased by 3.13%. Therefore, the new Living Wage as of March 1, 2026 is $20.32. This amount should be communicated to vendors subject to the Living Wage Ordinance and will be used to adjust pay for appropriate city employees. The adjustment does not affect any existing contractual agreements unless the terms of those agreements so require. Questions concerning applicability and enforcement of the ordinance should be directed to the City of Cambridge Law Department at 617-349- 4121 or the Purchasing Department at 617-349-4310
Fun Under the Sun: Soccer
The Cambridge Summer Food Program and Cambridge Recreation are hosting an event for Cambridge youth to enjoy a game of soccer!
Fun Under the Sun: Basketball
The Cambridge Summer Food Program and Cambridge Recreation are hosting an event for Cambridge youth to enjoy a game of basketball!
Fun Under the Sun: Kickball
The Cambridge Summer Food Program and Cambridge Recreation are hosting an event for Cambridge youth to enjoy a game of kickball!
Summer Reading: Tiny Gardens Everywhere (Main)
Uncover the radical roots of urban gardening with Kate Brown, author of Tiny Gardens Everywhere (2026).
The history of gardening in European and North American cities in the 20th century is a story about ordinary people working with each other—and with plants and microbes—to cultivate life in the unlikeliest of places. Using the deluge of nutrients that flow into cities, working class gardeners regenerated wasteland, built the first garden city communities, and engaged in the most productive agriculture in recorded human history. Following the plants and microbes, urban gardeners also built mutual aid societies that advocated for equity, social welfare, and rights—rights not to liberty and the pursuit of happiness (who can eat that?) but to food, fuel, and shelter; to well-being for all.
Kate Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at MIT. Her prize-winning books include Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future (2019), Plutopia: Nuclear Families in Atomic Cities and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (2013), and A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland (2004).
Presented in partnership with City of Cambridge Community Garden Program.