Living Wages and the Welfare State
Author | : Shaun Wilson |
Publisher | : Policy Press |
Total Pages | : 233 |
Release | : 2021-05-10 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781447341192 |
ISBN-13 | : 1447341198 |
Rating | : 4/5 (92 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Are living wages an unaffordable and unwieldy aspiration or a key progressive reform? Demands for fair minimum incomes have dominated national debates amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This topical book addresses the rapidly shifting politics of minimum wages in US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and Australia, where workfare has compelled many to find low-income work and where neoliberal thinking about minimum wages has prevailed. Analysing minimum wage policies within a political-economy narrative, this innovative book offers an alternative to the Basic Income narrative and identifies the success of Living Wage campaigns as central to welfare state change.