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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.
Introduction: The Challenge of a Living Wage
Minimum Wage Workers and the Low-wage Labour Market
Threats to Low-wage Workers and their Living Standards
The Crumbling Orthodoxy: Arguments for Low Minimum Wages
Enter the New Politics of the Living Wage
Challenges to Living Wage Welfare States
Conclusion: Living Wages and the Liberal Welfare States in the 21st century