Critical Perspectives on the Minimum Wage

Critical Perspectives on the Minimum Wage
Author: Anne C. Cunningham
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2016-07-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 076607675X

Perspectives on minimum wage have changed significantly over the past twenty years, as seen in the increased momentum of movements around the country to increase workers' salaries. Critics of an increased minimum wage argue that it will lead to mass lay-offs and increased unemployment. Proponents argue the opposite, that it will jump start our economy. In this book, economists, the media, the courts, and even ordinary people will weigh in on this contentious issue, allowing students to evaluate the minimum wage from all sides.

Labour and the Wage

Labour and the Wage
Author: Zoe Adams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-03-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198858892

Labour and the Wage: A Critical Perspective offers a new perspective on why labour law struggles to respond to problems such as low pay and under-inclusive employment. A Marxian-inspired ontological approach sheds new light on the role of labour law in a capitalist economy and on the limitations and potential of labour law when it comes to bringing about social change. It illustrates this through the lens of the wage. The book develops a legal genealogy that explores the shifting portfolio of concepts through which the wage has been conceptualized in legal discourse as capitalism has developed. This exploration spans from the Norman Conquest to the present day, and covers diverse issues such as the decasualization of the docks, sweated labour, the truck system, tax-credits, tips, and minimum wages. Labour and the Wage provides one of the most in-depth and comprehensive analyses of the wage to date, while, at the same time, shedding new light on the contradictory role, or function, of labour law in the context of capitalism.

Minimum Wages

Minimum Wages
Author: David Neumark
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2008
Genre: Income distribution
ISBN: 0262141027

A comprehensive review of evidence on the effect of minimum wages on employment, skills, wage and income distributions, and longer-term labor market outcomes concludes that the minimum wage is not a good policy tool.

Myth and Measurement

Myth and Measurement
Author: David Card
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691169128

David Card and Alan B. Krueger have already made national news with their pathbreaking research on the minimum wage. Here they present a powerful new challenge to the conventional view that higher minimum wages reduce jobs for low-wage workers. In a work that has important implications for public policy as well as for the direction of economic research, the authors put standard economic theory to the test, using data from a series of recent episodes, including the 1992 increase in New Jersey's minimum wage, the 1988 rise in California's minimum wage, and the 1990-91 increases in the federal minimum wage. In each case they present a battery of evidence showing that increases in the minimum wage lead to increases in pay, but no loss in jobs. A distinctive feature of Card and Krueger's research is the use of empirical methods borrowed from the natural sciences, including comparisons between the "treatment" and "control" groups formed when the minimum wage rises for some workers but not for others. In addition, the authors critically reexamine the previous literature on the minimum wage and find that it, too, lacks support for the claim that a higher minimum wage cuts jobs. Finally, the effects of the minimum wage on family earnings, poverty outcomes, and the stock market valuation of low-wage employers are documented. Overall, this book calls into question the standard model of the labor market that has dominated economists' thinking on the minimum wage. In addition, it will shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage in Washington and in state legislatures throughout the country. With a new preface discussing new data, Myth and Measurement continues to shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage.

Evaluating Minimum Wage Laws

Evaluating Minimum Wage Laws
Author: André Müller
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2020-08-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3346222772

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,7, SRH - Mobile University, language: English, abstract: The present paper aims at evaluating minimum wage laws. In order to reflect the topic, two countries – Germany and the United Kingdom –, which have already introduced minimum wages, are chosen as examples. Furthermore, the paper examines minimum wages from the perspective of two different economic theories on government intervention by introducing the neoclassical and the Keynesian approach. It investigates the observed actual impact and effectiveness of minimum wage legislation against the presented market theories as well as against the objectives and expectations raised by the legislation. Finally, the student paper gives a recommendation whether the introduction of minimum wages is actually worthwhile or not. The paper starts with a definition of the problem and introduces objectives as well as current relevance of the topic. Subsequently, the theoretical background is reflected. This includes the definition of the term minimum wage as well as presenting the neoclassical and the Keynesian economic theory. Chapter two finally ends with a short summary. Afterwards, the paper continues with Chapter three, which describes the minimum wage concepts of Germany and the United Kingdom. Therefore, the implementation track records explain the history, structure and the scope of the different minimum wage concepts. The critical discussion in chapter four finally evaluates the observed actual impact and effectiveness of minimum wages against the economic theories. Furthermore, it reflects the expectations and objectives which are raised by the government. The paper concludes with a summary and an outlook.

Critical Wage Theory

Critical Wage Theory
Author: Ruben J. Garcia
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2024-07-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0520388046

In this highly original and personal book, Ruben J. Garcia argues forcefully that we must center the minimum wage as a tool for fighting structural racism. Employing the lessons of critical race theory to show how low minimum wages and underenforcement of workplace laws have always been features of our racially stratified society, Garcia explains why we must follow the leadership of social movements by treating increases in minimum wage levels and enforcement as matters of racial justice. Offering solutions that would benefit all workers, especially the immigrants and people of color most often made victims of wage theft, Critical Wage Theory is essential reading for anyone who seeks a more just future for the working class.

The Right to a Living Wage

The Right to a Living Wage
Author: Matt Uhler
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2017-07-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1534500839

With the disappearance of well-paying jobs and the increasing cost of living, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay afloat in the United States. Workers who earn the minimum wage often can’t afford the most basic needs. In response, more than 100 U.S. cities have issued living wage ordinances, requiring payments that allow workers to afford food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and healthcare. It may seem obvious that everyone wins with a living wage. But does paying out a living wage help or harm the economy? Should corporations be forced to pay them? What is society’s responsibility to its workers?

Critical Perspectives on Climate Change

Critical Perspectives on Climate Change
Author: Stephen Feinstein
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2016-07-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0766076555

The scientific community today largely agrees that climate change is occurring, and that it could have devastating consequences. Still, many Americans are unsure as to what climate change is and what higher temperatures and rising sea levels could mean for them. This essential volume includes scientific data and experts' opinion, along with ordinary people's viewpoints, to examine this important issue. Students will evaluate the evidence to reach a conclusion to one of the most important issues of our time.

The Politics of the Minimum Wage

The Politics of the Minimum Wage
Author: Jerold L. Waltman
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780252025457

The minimum wage as a value of civic republicanism The minimum wage appears to be a standard economic regulatory measure, yet a politics of symbolism more than anything else defines the political contests that periodically erupt over it. Detractors abhor its corruption of market principles, while supporters see it as a measure of society's symbolic commitment to the poor. Tracing the history of the minimum wage and exposing its inherent contradictions as a political issue, Jerold Waltman proposes an alternative to the economic arguments that now dominate debates over it. Citing overwhelming public support for the minimum wage as evidence of an enduring civic consciousness and humanitarianism, Waltman advocates recasting the discussion in terms of a political economy of citizenship. Such a perspective would focus on the communal value of work, the need for citizens to have a stake in the community, and the effects of economic inequality on the bonds of common citizenship. Positioning the minimum wage as a fulcrum for the most basic conflict underlying America's unique combination of democracy and a market economy, The Politics of the Minimum Wage shows how a defense of the minimum wage built on a communal sense of responsibility rests on a strong tradition of civic republicanism and strengthens the hope for a truly democratic society.