Living wages, equal wages : gender and labor market policies in the United States

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 One: Laying the Groundwork: Methodological Frameworks and Theoretical Perspectives 1. Living Wages, Equal Wages, and the Value of Women's Work 2. Waged Work in the Twentieth Century 3. Two Faces of Wages Within the Economics Tradition: Wages as a Living, Wages as a Price 4. The Third Face: Wages as a Social Practice Part Two: Wage Regulations in the Twentieth Century 5. An Experiment in Wage Regulation: Minimum Wages for Women 6. A Living for Breadwinners: The Federal Minimum Wage 7. Job Evaluation and the Ideology of Equal Pay 8. Legislating Equal Wages Part Three: The Century Ahead 9. Living Wages, Equal Wages Revisited: Contemporary Movements and Policy Initiatives 10. Applying Feminist Political Economy to Wage Setting