The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy - Hardcover

Pollin, Robert; Luce, Stephanie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565844092 ISBN 13: 9781565844094

Publisher: The New Press, 1998

Synopsis

With campaigns for a living wage sweeping the country, here is an accessible and provocative argument for a national “living wage.” Hailed as “the bible of the living wage movement,” The Living Wage shows how living-wage proposals are affordable for both cities and employers, and reveals how they can play an important role in reversing the twenty-five-year decline in wages experienced by most working people in America. Written by leading experts, The Living Wage is a realistic and accessible examination of this vital—and growing—movement for economic justice in the United States.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author or editor of four previous books and has written widely for The Nation, New Left Review, and other publications.

From Publishers Weekly

Recently, Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Richard Gephardt introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage by $1 per hour by the year 2000. Yet even if the bill passes, according to arguments presented here, many minimum-wage workers will still live below the poverty line. Talk of alternatives among policy makers has focused on the "living wage" initiative, which would require companies that receive government contracts to compensate their workers in sufficient pay and benefits to raise them above the poverty level. On the side usually championed by Democrats are Pollin, a professor of economics and codirector of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Luce, a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The authors favor implementing the initiative on a national level and bolster their arguments with extensive research, often attempting to show why conservatives who oppose the measure are shortsighted. Those not passionately interested in this issue will find the writing dry and rife with policy terminology. This is more of an academic study than a general overview of the political and sociological implications of such an initiative. However, according to the authors, the core findings on which the book is based most likely played a role in living wage legislation that was recently adopted in Los Angeles; just so, the book may help other activists raise the pitch of the debate. Editor, Matt Weiland.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1565844092
• ISBN 13: 9781565844094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244