The Universal Living Wage Essay -- Essays Papers

The widely distributed Living salaryIn 1906 Father joke Ryan, a renowned social and economic intellectual within the Catholic Church, published a book titled A Living Wage Its Ethical and Economic Aspects. The book introduced to America workers the idea of a guaranteed minimum pay determined by the basic costs of living and lap the stage for later minimum hire decree during the 1930s. Over the live decade, the idea of a living net has resurfaced as workers have experience more outspoken about the inadequacies of the federal and state minimum wage levels. Living wage legislation for government workers has taken effect in major U.S. cities such as Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Jose, Detroit, Boston, and many more. This paper will address the moral, social, and economic implications of instituting these laws as well as labor conditions around the creation and the need for guaranteed living wages in countries such as India and Mexico. firstly of all, a clear definition of the living wage should be established. The Universal Living Wage Campaign Organization says that if a person works forty hours a week, a living wage should provide the worker and his/her dependents with proper nutrition, health care, housing, clothing, and transportation. Some debate has arisen around this definition though for a few reasons. First of all, the number of dependents the wage-earner must support has a huge impact on the calculation of the living wage. A wage-earner who alone has to support himself can survive with a much lower wage than a wage-earner who must support a family of five for example, so how should legislation take this into account? If the idea of the living wage is to pay workers found on need, a law that provides a wage capable of supp... ...- fairish Clothes Campaign. http//www.cleanclothes.org/campaign/liwa99-11- 3.htm.-Universal Living Wage Effect on Business and Taxpayers. http//www.nationalhomeless.org/ulwwhitepaper.html-Pri tchard, Justin. U.S. Study Concludes That Living Wage Reduces Poverty. http//www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0314-03.htm . 2002-Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. tender Study Mexicans Unable to Live on Sweatshop Wages. . 2001. -CFO defend the Rights of Maquiladora Workers. -Pritchard, Justin. Study Living Wage Laws Work. http//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/14/national/main503712.shtml-http//www.epinet.org/issueguides/minwage/figure1.gif