This paper provides some empirical evidence on issues raised by the global anti-sweatshop movement. We first consider the relationship between wage and employment growth, finding no consistent trade-off between them. We then measure the share of labor costs in the production of garments in the...

Drawing on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), David Neumark (2002) finds that living wage laws have brought substantial wage increases for a high proportion of workers in cities that have passed these laws. He also finds that living wage laws significantly reduce employment...

The single most important fact about the contemporary pattern of global economic integration is that it is being guided by a predominant commitment to neoliberal economic policies. Considering both the global North and South, this paper examines three basic problems resulting from neoliberal...

This paper first examines the question "what is a living wage" and provides a range of specific dollar amounts derived from a conceptual assessment of the term. I then provide a series of cost estimates of living wage laws in various cities. Based on these cost estimates, I examine a set of...

Over recent decades, there has been the substantial rise in the proportion of people engaged in what is termed informal employment, generating a broad trend toward "informalization" of labor market conditions in developing countries, even when economic growth is proceeding. We consider the...

The term "living wage" has been used in two separate ways: 1) a wage rate that will enable workers and their families to live above a reasonable poverty threshold; and 2) a somewhat more ambitious standard, a wage rate that will meet a family's basic budgetary needs. This paper attempts to...

This encyclopedia entry examines the relationship between saving behavior in capitalist economies and their macroeconomic performance. It first considers various accounting issues in defining "saving" and argues for the significance of these accounting distinctions for understanding how saving...

This paper provides some empirical evidence on issues raised by the global anti-sweatshop movement. We first consider the relationship between wage and employment growth, finding no consistent trade-off between them. We then measure the share of labor costs in the production of garments in the...

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...