The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy [Paperback]

Robert Pollin (Author), Stephanie Luce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

An accessible and provocative argument for a national "living wage." "The living wage campaign is the most interesting (and under-reported) grassroots enterprise to emerge since the civil rights movement."--Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect. With campaigns for a living wage sweeping the country, Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce's timely and powerful defense of its practicality and success is now available in an updated paperback edition. 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.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Many economists cringe when they hear the word fair in economic debates (or book titles). These purists believe that economists step outside their professional roles when they begin to advocate policies or impose their own value judgments. Pollin (codirector, Political Economy Research Inst., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) and Luce, a former government economist, provide ample evidence supporting the living-wage proposal (stipulating a higher minimum wage for firms with city contracts) adopted in Los Angeles, but they are not reticent about stating their own opinions. They focus on the Los Angeles proposal but in their concluding chapter make their case for national-level changes, most of which involve redistributing income from the wealthy to the poor. They are quick to make such controversial statements as "businesses can afford for their costs to rise 1% and not have to raise price" but the analytical chapters are balanced and informative. Recommended for public and academic collections in economics, politics, and urban policy.?A.J. Sobczak, Covina, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565845889
• ISBN-13: 978-1565845886
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,777,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible of the Living Wage Movement, August 20, 1999

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[e-mail] (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Wage : Building a Fair Economy (Hardcover)

Review of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy by Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce

Every so often a work of contemporary issue analysis comes along that illuminates the often-arcane world of professional activists in language that renders it accessible to the general public. In The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy (New Press), economists Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce have not only provided a long-overdue assessment of the fifty-plus living wage campaigns across the country, they have created an invaluable tool for the organizers currently engaged in those efforts. Since the book's printing, I've found grateful readers and dog-eared copies in campaign offices from Montana to Maryland.

Since the modern living wage movement began with the passage of the Baltimore living wage ordinance in 1994, more than twenty-five cities and counties have passed living wage laws, and campaigns are underway in over two dozen more jurisdictions, making the effort "the most interesting (and under-reported) grassroots enterprise to emerge since the civil rights movement" according to the journalist Robert Kuttner. Defenders of other political movements of the last thirty years might disagree, but there's no question that the thousands of workers who have received a raise or new benefits due to a living wage law appreciate their significance.

The campaigns, which begin with the idea that no one working full time should be forced to live in poverty, require businesses receiving public dollars to pay wages significantly above the minimum wage, usually enough to raise a family at or above the poverty level. Many organizers would prefer to cover more workers by raising the minimum wage for all jobs, but where that is not legal or politically viable, the efforts target jobs created with public dollars -- namely public employees, employees working for public contractors, and in many jurisdictions, workers employed in businesses receiving public subsidies, whether industrial revenue bonds, low-interest loans, or tax abatements.

Most of the campaigns have met with fierce resistance from both the business community and elected officials, who have fought the passage of ordinances and worked to evade them after approval. Baltimore quickly moved to hire workfare workers for city contract work immediately after the passage of is ordinance. Minneapolis has found creative ways to distribute corporate subsidies without requiring recipients to comply with the laws. Pollin and Luce, who headed the economics team that researched the cost of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance, convincingly debunk opponents' claims that living wage laws add enormous costs to financially strapped municipalities and create unemployment among the very populations they are intended to help. They cite an initial study of the effects of the Baltimore ordinance by the Preamble Center for Public Policy. Based on phone interviews with contractors, Mark Weisbrot and Michelle Sforza-Roderick found that the cost of winning city contract bids did not increase after the living wage ordinance took effect. Increased worker productivity and reduced absenteeism brought on by higher wages combined with market competition for contracts to hold steady the costs to the city. In addition, no companies reported laying off workers or hiring fewer than they would have without a living wage ordinance. Overall, after two years of experience, the predictions of living wage opponents that the law would increase unemployment and raise costs to the city were not borne out.

Pollin and Luce convincingly explain the methodology they use estimate the cost of a living wage ordinance, and prove that - despite opponents' claims - the costs of ordinances is restricted to a small percentage of a municipality's budget, and propose solutions to minimize the cost even more. They demonstrate the high social value by showing that the benefits of such laws - wage increases to the lowest-wage workers - are concentrated, while the costs are diffuse, spread over the entire tax base.

The authors also produce a withering critique of the conventional business subsidy approach to economic development practiced by the federal government and imitated by most cities and states, and they persuasively examine the social costs of outsourcing by municipalities. Instead, they propose a "high-road" alternative strategy that prioritizes high wages and high productivity by investing in public schools, worker training and retention, public safety, and efficient physical infrastructure. Living wage laws complement this strategy by removing firms' incentives to compete by paying poverty wages, forcing them to compete by increasing worker productivity.

Central labor councils and affiliated locals have invested in living wage campaigns, usually in conjunction with chapters of ACORN, the New Party, and civic and religious leaders, for a variety of reasons. The efforts have proven to be an effective vehicle to organize community and religious support for raising wages for workers in many of the lowest-paid sectors. Leaders of higher-paid locals whose workers are not directly affected realize that raising the wage floor strengthens their positions during bargaining. By covering all city contracts, the living wage laws erode municipalities' incentives for contracting out. By insisting that policy initiatives be judged by their effectiveness at creating good jobs, the campaigns raise an important challenge to the conventional business subsidy model of economic development. And they broadcast labor's role as the defenders of working families - both organized and unorganized - to the media and the general public.

Pollin and Luce have produced an excellent work; reading this book and engaging in a local living wage campaign are worthy New Years' resolutions for any labor activist.

Other resources (partial list)

National contacts: ACORN, Jen Kern: [phone] AFL-CIO, Christine Silvia: [phone] New Party, Adam Glickman: [phone]

Local contacts: Boston Jobs and Living Wage Campaign, Lisa Clauson, [phone] Solidarity Sponsoring Committee, Kerry Miciotto, [phone] Chicago Living Wage Campaign, Jon Green: [phone] Cleveland SEIU Local 47, Willie Howard, [phone] Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, Joyce Lartigue, [phone] Duluth Coalition for a Living Wage, Erik Peterson: (218) 722-0577 Los Angeles Living Wage Coalition, Madeline Janis-Aparicio: (213) 486-9880 Maryland State Living Wage Campaign, Steve Smitson, [phone] Campaign for a Sustainable Milwaukee, Bill Dempsey, [phone] Minneapolis/St. Paul Living Wage Campaigns, Progressive Minnesota: (612) 641-6199 Montgomery County (MD) Living Wage Campaign, Ann Swinburn, (301) 495-7004 Missoula (MT) Living Wage Campaign, Derek Birnie: [phone] New Haven Living Wage Campaign, Andrea Cole, [phone] Oakland Living Wage Campaign, Jim DuPont, [phone] Portland Jobs with Justice, Nancy Haque: [phone] Working Partnerships USA (San Jose, CA), Robert Dhondrup: [phone]

Tom Hucker is a campaign consultant with the Progressive America Fund. He has advised living wage campaigns since 1995.