ABSTRACT

Wage setting has historically been a deeply political and cultural as well as economic process. This informative and accessible book explores how US wage regulations in the twentieth century took gender, race-ethnicity and class into account. Focusing on social reform movements for living wages and equal wages, it offers an interdisciplinary account of how women's work and the remuneration for that work has changed along with the massive transformations in the economy and family structures.
The controversial issue of establishing living wages for all workers makes this book both a timely and indispensable contribution to this wide ranging debate, and it will surely become required reading for anyone with an interest in modern economic issues.

part 1|64 pages

Laying the Groundwork

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

Living Wages, Equal Wages, and the Value of Women's Work

chapter 2|18 pages

Waged Work in the Twentieth Century

chapter 3|18 pages

Two Faces of Wages within the Economics Tradition

Wages as a Living, Wages as a Price

chapter 4|13 pages

The Third Face

Wages as a Social Practice

part 2|111 pages

Wage Regulations in the Twentieth Century

chapter 5|24 pages

An Experiment in Wage Regulation

Minimum Wages for Women

chapter 6|29 pages

A Living for Breadwinners

The Federal Minimum Wage

chapter 8|33 pages

Legislating Equal Wages

part 3|44 pages

The Century Ahead

chapter 9|29 pages

Living Wages, Equal Wages Revisited

Contemporary Movements and Policy Initiatives