The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy

Description

This text analyzes the specifics of the economic concept of the living wage and documents the results of its implementation in cities around America. Essentially a legislative initiative requiring companies that receive government contracts to pay their workers decent wages and reasonable benefits, the first living wage campaign was waged and won in Baltimore in 1994. Living wages have since been passed in Boston, Jersey City, Milwaukee, New York and St Paul. The authors describe the dramatic improvements that resulted in these cases and argue against the criticisms.

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.