The Founding Story
It started with a simple question: who speaks for us?
Most Americans work hard, pay their bills, raise their families, and follow the rules. And for years, many of them have had the same quiet feeling: nobody in power is really listening.
The numbers behind that feeling are real. Consumer prices rose about 21% from January 2020 to December 2024 (Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI). The median existing home now sells for about $407,000 (National Association of Realtors, 2024). The average employer family health plan costs $25,572 a year, with workers paying about $6,296 of it themselves (KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, 2024). Meanwhile, the median American wage earner brought home about $48,000 in net compensation (Social Security Administration, 2023). Costs have been outrunning paychecks, and working people have felt it at every checkout line, every rent renewal, every open-enrollment packet.
Here is the part that changes everything: the people living that squeeze are not a minority. They are the overwhelming majority. About 9 in 10 American wage earners made under $120,000 in 2023, out of more than 150 million Americans who received wages (SSA, 2023). That is more than 100 million people — teachers, nurses, drivers, technicians, cooks, clerks, farmers, servicemembers, small-business owners.
120K or Less was founded on one conviction: a majority that large should never feel voiceless. Not as a party. Not as a protest. As a membership organization — the kind of institution working Americans used to build for themselves — where the members set the direction, the books are open, and the mission never wanders from the people it serves.
This isn't about political parties. It's about people.
The Majority, By the Numbers
We're not a niche. We're the country.
Who We Are
A membership organization, not a moment
120K or Less — America's Working Majority is a national membership movement in formation. Our mission is to represent, educate, and advocate for Americans earning $120,000 or less by promoting policies that strengthen the working class, expand economic opportunity, and increase civic participation.
Our vision is plain and ambitious: to become the largest nonpartisan community of working Americans in the United States. Not a think tank speaking about working people — an institution owned and directed by them.
Membership is free and always will be. Members get a weekly newsletter, voting alerts, legislative updates, local events, member forums, and a real say through member polls and votes. Those who can give more may — but a paycheck is never the price of a voice here.
In formation: our legal entities are being organized now. See exactly how we'll operate on our Transparency page.
Mission · Vision · Values
What we stand on
Our Mission
Represent, educate, and advocate for Americans earning $120,000 or less — promoting policies that strengthen the working class, expand economic opportunity, and increase civic participation.
Our Vision
The largest nonpartisan community of working Americans in the United States: informed, organized, and impossible to ignore.
Dignity of Work
Every honest job deserves respect, and every honest worker deserves a fair shot. We talk about working Americans the way they deserve to be talked about — as the backbone of the country, never as a problem to be managed.
Radical Transparency
Open books, published budgets, disclosed compensation, and honest numbers — always sourced, never inflated. If we can't show it, we won't say it. Read our commitments.
Members Own It
One member, one vote. Members elect the board, vote on priorities, and elect their state chapter leaders. Leadership answers to members — not the other way around.
Facts First
Every statistic we publish carries its source and year. We'd rather write around a missing number than invent one. Trust is our only real asset, and we don't spend it.
Nonpartisan Always
We don't work for a party, endorse a party, or take orders from one. We work for people who earn $120,000 or less — whoever they vote for. We run no political committee, ever.
Neighbor to Neighbor
Movements are built at kitchen tables, break rooms, and church basements — not just online. State chapters, local events, and member forums keep this organization human-sized even at national scale.
Governance
Members own the movement
Most organizations ask for your support. This one hands you the keys. From day one, our bylaws are being written around a single principle: the people this movement serves are the people who run it.
- One member, one vote. Every free member gets an equal vote. No premium ballots, no weighted shares, no insider class.
- Members elect the board. The board of directors is chosen by the membership — not appointed by donors, founders, or friends of founders.
- An annual convention. Once a year, members gather to set priorities, hear the full financial report, and hold leadership to account in person.
- State chapters elect state leaders. Each state chapter chooses its own leadership, so the movement in Ohio answers to Ohioans.
Leadership Structure
How the organization will be led
We are in formation, so we won't print names and titles until they're real. Here is the structure members will elect and oversee.
Board of Directors
Nine to fifteen directors, elected by the membership under one-member-one-vote. The board sets strategy, approves the budget, and publishes summaries of its meetings. Term limits and an ethics policy apply to every seat.
Executive Team
A small professional staff accountable to the board: an executive director, plus leads for membership, policy and research, communications, chapters and organizing, and operations and finance. Every executive's compensation will be published.
Advisory Council
Working practitioners who keep us grounded: voices from business, labor, veterans' communities, education, healthcare, public safety, small business, and agriculture. The council advises; it does not vote or govern.
All governance documents — bylaws, ethics policy, and conflict-of-interest policy — will be published in full on our Transparency page as they are adopted.
The Road Ahead
Where this movement is going
These are goals, not guarantees — and we'll report our progress against them openly, milestone by milestone.
- FormationOrganize the 501(c)(4) and its educational foundation, adopt bylaws and ethics policies, and publish them. This is where we are today.
- Founding membersOpen free membership nationwide at launch. Everyone who joins in the founding period is a founding member — on the record as being here first.
- 100,000 membersThe first proof of scale: enough members to run credible national polls of the working majority and put real numbers in front of lawmakers.
- State chapters in all 50 statesLocal leadership elected by local members in every state, plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
- 1,000,000 membersA membership larger than most institutions in American civic life — and a voice no one in Washington can wave away.
- National conventionThe first full annual convention: members electing the board, voting on the platform, and setting the agenda in the open.
The Emblem
Vote is Power.
Our emblem carries our rallying cry. Working Americans don't need to buy influence — they already hold the single most powerful instrument in the country. About 9 in 10 wage earners make $120,000 or less (SSA, 2023). When the working majority is informed, organized, and shows up, it doesn't ask for a seat at the table. It is the table.
Your Work. Your Voice. Your Future. · Working Americans Deserve More.
Be Here First
Join the movement
Membership is free, and founding members will be on the record as the people who built this. Add your name.
Opens at national launch