The Living Wage
Buell, John
A STRATEGY THAT PAYS John Buell espite the conservative political and economic tenor of the last two decades, one progressive initiative is making a comeback: Proposals to expand the...
...The Oak Knoll School is governed by a 24-member board of trustees who now seek a strong visionary leader committed to theprinciples of education developed by Cornelia Connelly, the founder of the Society for the Holy Child Jesus, the school's sponsoring order...
...States would be far better off emphasizing adequate transportation and education for workers than direct subsidies to business...
...When workers are treated with respect, their self-esteem and willingness to contribute both on the job and in their communities is enhanced...
...State and local subsidies to businesses in urban areas usually require no quid pro quo and often fail to produce lasting job growth...
...Recent changes in welfare law were premised on the popular assumption that if one works hard, one can escape poverty...
...Pollin and Luce demonstrate that modest boosts in the minimum wage, especially during a booming economy, can leverage greater worker productivity and continuing consumer demand...
...it's a law...
...3. Many jobs at or just above the minimttm wage are in the service sector and cannot easily be relocated out of the country...
...Two respected social scientists, economist Robert Pollin and sociologist Stephanie Luce, address these longstanding conservative arguments in this short, accessible book...
...The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational and admissions policies, scholarship and financial aid programs, or athletic or other school administered programs...
...Maine is one of the few states where this assumption has received careful scrutiny...
...Pollin and Luce also show that municipal minimum-wage ordinances, which compel recipients of city contracts to pay all workers a "living wage," defined as between $6.50 and $7.50 an hour, have amounted to little more than I percent of total production costs for most contractors...
...Two of my home state's neighbors, Vermont and Massachusetts, have recognized that the current federal minimum wage is too low...
...Oak Knoll prides itself on the quality and strength of its academic program, as well as, on the balance existing between academics and experiences in the arts and athletics...
...Catholic social thought has long maintained that the worker is a vital part of the community and merits a living wage...
...Please forward nominations or requests for information to: Educators' Collaborative AganE...
...Their findings indicate that many of those leaving welfare for the job market receive below-povertylevel wages...
...Jobs have not been lost...
...4. Workers aren't just raw material...
...Last spring, Washington Post columnist James Glassman intoned: "All else being equal, if you raise the price of something (for instance, labor), then the demand for it (for instance, by employers) will decline...
...Pollin and Luce do not regard the minimum wage as a panacea...
...Not surprisingly, however, even modest enhancements of minimum-wage law evoke fierce conservative counterattack...
...8. Alleviating urban poverty requires some economic-development policy...
...Recognizing that need should not result in writing business a blank check...
...Stephanie Seguino and Sandy Butler, of The Maine Center for Economic Policy, have studied poor women...
...The search is for someone to become permanent head in July 1999...
...Of course, such reforms are still a good way off, but that is all the more reason to attend to local struggles over minimum-wage ordinances...
...Toward these ends the authors advocate both broader protections for union organizing in the workplace and restrictions on the speculative financial markets that encourage short-term management thinking...
...Nonetheless, even this tax credit is an implicit subsidy to businesses whose strategy is to pursue a low-pay, high-turnover work force...
...Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child HEAD OF SCHOOL The trustees of the Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, New Jersey are seekinga head of school to succeed Cynthia Vives, SHCJ, who leaves the school after 16 years of distinguished service...
...Pollin and Luce note several examples of firms that pay $7.25 an hour to their lowestlevel workers and yet compete successfully with firms paying far less...
...Such workers will continue to need assistance, either in the form of private charity, restored welfare, or increases in the earned-income tax credit...
...That cannot continue forever...
...Modest increases in wage levels are both possible and necessary, but we can best afford increases if productivity is expanding and extreme inequalities within the workplace curbed...
...The key to their competitive success," they suggest, "was a high morale/high productivity work environment, which included almost no absenteeism or turnover...
...The Oak Knoll School currently enrolls 238 boys and girls in grates K-6 and 277 girls in grades 7-12...
...Partisans on both sides can benefit from their analysis...
...Since its founding in 1924, the Oak Knoll School has been a substantial institution, and in the past 15 years under Cynthia Vives' leadership the school has flourished and is now one of the most highly regarded independent schools in the state and region...
...The 1880s and 1920s are examples of eras of corporate hegemony that soon brought on economic woe...
...Although such a strategy may work for business in the short run, it imposes severe costs on the rest of us...
...How workers are treated has a major impact on their job performance...
...6. Society neither can nor should allow working Americans to persist in hunger or deprivation...
...It is important to remember that if the minimum wage had increased as fast as worker-productivity gains have in the last thirty years, it would now stand at over $11 an hour...
...Properly framed, campaigns for a living wage are popular, can achieve impressive benefits, and demonstrate how limits on market excesses work to the long-term advantage of everyone...
...Firms have been able to absorb most of the costs, through further Commonweal 3 0 November 6, 1998 productivity improvements or simply by accepting lower profit rates...
...They have already set higher state levels, and it is hard to detect any business flight...
...Historically, the seeds of future stagnation have been laid when corporations and markets were permitted to exercise total control over workers' wages...
...Pollin and Luce put forth at least eight good reasons why federal and state policy makers should consider an increase in the minimum wage: 1. History justifies an increase...
...Our current economic growth is heavily dependent on consumer confidence (and debt...
...John Buell is the author of Democracy by Other Means (University of Illinois...
...1945-70) saw the nation's fastest and most prolonged period of economic growth...
...The school describes itself as Judeo-Christian in heritage and Roman Catholic in teaching and worship...
...That's not just a theory...
...Only if we raise those on the bottom of the income ladder will we be able to put economic advance on a sounder foundation...
...2. Corporations can afford the increase...
...Strand or Joan S. Mcmman~a 520 C_dk~ HiiRoad Post Oflke Box 768 Oxford, lVr~ 38655 " (601) 236-6313 (51~ S37~ N'Y" B ' ~ 11932 F~:: (601) 23641090 (516)537-3782 Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child admits students of any race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school...
...Even after the recent federal boost in the minimum wage to $5.15, today's jobs pay 30 percent less in real, inflation-adjusted dollars than they did thirty years ago...
...The hyperbole of business groups to the contrary, such minimum wage policies do not constitute micromanagement...
...More important, the now much-lamented era when unions and governments placed a floor under wages (ca...
...5. Workers are also consumers...
...Commonweal 3 II November 6, 1998...
...A STRATEGY THAT PAYS John Buell espite the conservative political and economic tenor of the last two decades, one progressive initiative is making a comeback: Proposals to expand the number of workers eligible for and/or to increase the minimum wage are on the table not only in Washington but in many localities...
...7. The earned-income tax credit is good public policy because it creates an incentive to work and is broad based without intruding unduly in the lives of recipients...
...They merely encourage business to compete in areas other than the race to the bottom when it comes to worker wages...
Vol. 125 • November 1998 • No. 19
