Stephanie Luce

Intended versus unintended consequences: Evaluating the New Orleans living wage ordinance

In February 2002, citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, endorsed with a 63 percent majority a ballot initiative that proposed to raise the minimum wage within the city by one dollar above the federal minimum wage. If this proposal were implemented, it would mean that all workers in New Orleans, with the exception of those in job categories that are explicitly exempted from the law, would have to be paid at least

Women and Class: What Has Happened in Forty Years?

6.15 an hour, 19.4 percent above the current national minimum wage of

Intended vs. Unintended Consequences: Evaluating the New Orleans Living Wage Proposal

5.15. The New Orleans law would also mean that workers within the city would get raises each time the federal minimum increased in order for New Orleans workers to maintain its one dollar increment above the federal minimum. Despite overwhelming support from New Orleans voters, this measure will not be implemented as law, at least in the current political environment. In 1997, the Louisiana State Legislature had passed a law prohibiting New Orleans from implementing a living wage ordinance and, after a many-layered legal battle, in September 2002, the State Supreme Court upheld the Legislatures overriding authority in this matter.

Can U.S. Cities afford living wage programs? An examination of alternatives

Forty years ago this summer, a group of women and men came together to form the National Organization for Women (NOW). NOWs mission was to fight for gender equality through education and litigation. While not the only group fighting for womens rights, it quickly became one of the best known and largest. Today, NOW has over a half million members and over 500 chapters throughout the country. NOW was founded at a time when women were entering the paid labor force in increasing numbers. NOW had its critics: many said it ignored race and class, others said it was too focused on liberal feminist legal strategies like passing the Equal Rights Amendment. Numerous other organizations representing working-class women and women of color developed, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, 9to5, the National Organization of Working Women, and the Combahee River Collective. Together with a myriad of other groups these organizations helped build the womens movement of the 1960s and 1970sThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Role of Community Involvement in Implementing Living Wage Ordinances

In February 2002, New Orleans endorsed with a 63 percent majority a ballot initiative to establish a citywide minimum wage one dollar above the federal minimum. We surveyed New Orleans businesses in 1999 to estimate this proposal’s costs. We present the main results from this survey. We then evaluate five means through which firms might adjust to cost increases—raising prices, improving productivity, redistribution of firms’ income, layoffs/labor displacements, and relocations. Because we find that the cost increases will be small for most firms—i.e. one percent or less of these firms’ operating budgets—we conclude that changes in prices, productivity and distribution are the likely primary means through which firms will absorb these costs. We also consider the likely benefits of the measure to some New Orleans businesses through an expenditure multiplier.

STARTING DOWN THE ROAD TO POWER: THE DENVER AREA LABOR FEDERATION

Since 1994, so-called living wage ordinances have passed in 20 cities in the United States, and activists are advancing similar proposals throughout the country. These proposals are a response to the declining real wages of low-wage workers in the United States-what David Gordon termed the wage squeeze in Fat and Mean-and, in particular, to the 30 percent fall in the real value of the minimum wage from its peak in 1968. We consider here the main arguments advanced by opponents of living wage proposals: 1) they will place a heavy burden on municipal government budgets, forcing, among other things, cuts in vital city services that benefit low-income people; 2) they will encourage local businesses to relocate and discourage new businesses from investing within cities that have such ordinances; and 3) they will cause unemployment among low-wage workers. Examining these issues in the context of proposals that were either passed or considered in different cities, we find that none of the criticisms of living wage proposals stand up to careful scrutiny or evidence. Rather, living wage proposals are affordable and workable. They represent a small but significant step toward reversing the wage squeeze so carefully documented and analyzed in Fat and Mean.