Table Of ContentThe Right to a
Living Wage
Greenhaven Publishing’s At Issue series provides a wide
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at issue
SOCIAL ISSUES
at issue The Right to a Living Wage
Te Right to a
Living Wage
Other Books in the At Issue Series
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Te Right to a
Living Wage
Matt Uhler, Book Editor
Published in 2018 by Greenhaven Publishing, LLC
353 3rd Avenue, Suite 255, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2018 by Greenhaven Publishing, LLC
First Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
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Cover image: Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Uhler, Matt, editor.
Title: Te right to a living wage / Matt Uhler, book editor.
Description: First edition. | New York : Greenhaven Publishing, 2018. |
Series: At issue | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Grades
7-12.
Identifers: LCCN 2017009713| ISBN 9781534500822 (library bound) | ISBN
9781534500808 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Minimum wage--United states--Juvenile literature. | Living
wage movement--United States--Juvenile literature.
Classifcation: LCC HD4918 .R54 2018 | DDC 331.2/3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017009713
Manufactured in the United States of America
Website: http://greenhavenpublishing.com
Contents
Introduction 7
1. Increasing Pay Has Its Ups and Downs 9
John Wihbey
2. Mandating Higher Wages Will Raise Incomes 17
David Neumark
3. Minimum Wage Has No Efect on Poverty and 28
Reduces Jobs
James Sherk
4. Raising Minimum Wage Benefts Income Inequality 47
and Infation
Heather Boushey
5. Minimum Wages Increase Unemployment 61
Andrew Syrios
6. Tis Is Not About Job Loss 66
David Howell
7. Minimum Wage Laws Have Negative Efects 73
Mark Wilson
8. Minimum Wage Means Maximum Potential 89
David Cooper and Doug Hall
9. Raising Minimum Wage Doesn’t Change Anything 106
David Neumark
10. A Living Wage Is a Local Economy’s Lifeblood 116
Jef Chapman and Jef Tompson
11. A Living Wage Won’t Hurt Employers 139
Results.org
12. Te Working Poor Deserve a Living Wage 147
Carla A. Katz, Esq.
13. Higher Minimum Wage Alone Won’t Solve Poverty 151
T. H. Gindling
14. Minimum Wages Aren’t a Free Lunch 165
David Neumark
15. Companies Around the World Must Act Now to 179
Raise Minimum Wage
Rachel Wilshaw
Organizations to Contact 191
Bibliography 195
Index 197
Introduction
ongress established the minimum wage in 1938 with the
Cpassage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Te frst minimum
wage was 25 cents an hour, and the current minimum wage is
$7.25 an hour. Te frst minimum wage was limited to select
industries and gradually expanded to the nearly universal coverage
that it sees today.
Te frst living wage ordinances came into being in the United
States in Baltimore in 1994. By comparison, living wage ordinances
tend to be restricted to companies under contract with a local
government, higher than the national minimum wage, and set at
levels to guarantee that a family reaches or exceeds the poverty
level. Te right to a living wage has been debated for decades—
with much of that debate centered on the economic impact of
the minimum wage and the costs associated with raising that
standard. Te goal of both minimum wage legislation and living
wage ordinances is to raise the wages of low-income workers as a
means of alleviating poverty.
In 2014, the U.S. Senate debated the Minimum Wage Fairness
Act, which proposed to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an
hour in three incremental steps over the course of two years.
President Barack Obama strongly supported increasing the
federal minimum wage, and numerous public polls show wide
support among citizens for an increase to the minimum wage. In
opposition to increasing wages is the argument that prices will
increase and jobs will be lost. Te Congressional Budget Ofce
(CBO) estimated that approximately 500,000 jobs would be lost if
the minimum wage were to be increased to $10.10. Te CBO also
estimated that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 and tying
it to infation would increase the wages of 16.5 million workers in
2016. Currently, there are 29 states that have minimum wages set
higher than the federal minimum. Additionally, several cities have
7 x
eg a xW g v n i i L a o t t g h i R e
ordinances that exceed the federal minimum, most notably San
Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New York.
Adjusted for infation, the minimum wage peaked in terms
of buying power in 1968. According to the Pew Research Center,
the federal minimum wage has lost about 9.6% of its purchasing
power since it was last increased in 2009. What ties the living wage
movement to the minimum wage movement is the notion that
working families and individuals should be able to cover the cost
of their most basic needs. It is argued that when the buying power
of the minimum wage declines, families struggle to meet those
needs. Critics of wage foors argue that minimum wages primarily
efect teens and would have little beneft to working families.
Over the course of recent U.S. election cycles, there has been
a increased efort to push minimum wages to the $15-an-hour
mark. Critics argue that such a signifcant increase will not only
cost jobs, but will cause economic stagnation at a time when greater
economic stimulus is needed. Proponents of higher wages argue
that, by putting money in the hands of low-wage earners, consumer
spending will rise, which in turn will boost the overall economy
and create jobs. Many of the viewpoints in At Issue: Te Right to a
Living Wage examine this compelling and crucial economic debate.
x 8
1
Increasing Pay Has Its Ups and Downs
John Wihbey
John Wihbey is assistant director for Journalist’s Resource at the
Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics,
and Public Policy.
Te long-standing debate over minimum wage legislation involves
economic modeling at the national and local levels, both of which can
have broad efects on infation, the job market, and the American
workplace. Numerous studies have been launched by economists and
scientists alike, researching the impact of raising minimum wage on
rising costs and job growth—with the consensus being that there are
trade-ofs between higher wages and job losses but not necessarily
any evidence of correlation.
n 2016, California became the frst state to adopt legislation
Ithat will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
New York City, Seattle, and Washington D.C. also have plans to
phase in a $15-per-hour wage foor. Others are raising wages
above the federally mandated rate, according to the National
Conference of State Legislators. On August 1, 2016, for example,
Minnesota’s minimum wage rose to $9.50 per hour at the state’s
largest companies.
Te changes come afer years of national debate about the
need to raise pay so families can earn a living wage. Te U.S.
”Minimum wage: Updated research roundup on the efects of increasing pay”, by John
Wihbey, July, 27, 2016. http://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/inequality/the-
efects-of-raising-the-minimum-wage. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
