The Right to a Living Wage Greenhaven Publishing’s At Issue series provides a wide range of opinions on individual social issues. Each volume focuses on a specifc issue and ofers a variety of perspectives—eyewitness accounts, governmental views, scientifc analysis, newspaper and magazine accounts, and many more—to illuminate the issue. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations point to sources for further research. Enhancing critical thinking skills, each At Issue volume is an excellent research tool to help readers understand current social issues and prepare reports. 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 Are Graphic Music Lyrics Harmful? Banned Books Bilingual Education Campus Sexual Violence Cafeine Can Diets Be Harmful? Childhood Obesity Civil Disobedience Corporate Corruption Domestic Terrorism Environmental Racism Gender Politics Guns: Conceal and Carry Trial by Internet When Is Free Speech Hate Speech? 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 without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer. Articles in Greenhaven Publishing anthologies are ofen edited for length to meet page requirements. In addition, original titles of these works are changed to clearly present the main thesis and to explicitly indicate the author’s opinion. Every efort is made to ensure that Greenhaven Publishing accurately refects the original intent of the authors. Every efort has been made to trace the owners of the copyrighted material. 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.