Living Wages, Equal Wages (Routledge Advances in Feministeconomics, 1)

273 Pages·2002·1.27 MB·English

by  Deborah Figart

Living Wages, Equal Wages
“This book addresses an issue that is particularly timely after years of growing
income inequality and draconian decreases in welfare support for single mothers
which is likely to work increasing hardship as unemployment rises. The authors
deserve credit for making it clear throughout that their concern is not so much with
economics, as practiced by neoclassical economists, as with political economy. The
difference, as they make clear, is that the latter takes full cognizance of the importance
of social conditions and government policies, not merely market forces, in determin-
ing wages. This is an important lesson for an economics profession that has tended to
resist any efforts to improve upon a wage structure that rewards some with riches
beyond the dreams of avarice and leaves others destitute.”
Marianne Ferber, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois
“Moving from early twentieth-century struggles over minimum wages for both the
women worker and male breadwinner and post-World War II attempts at equal pay
through job evaluation and legislation onto recent battles for comparable worth and
the living wage, Figart, Mutari, and Power unmask wage setting as a central vehicle for
institutionalizing gender and race inequality in the United States. Their focus on the
wage as a living, as a price, and as a social practice demystifies the labor market
process at a time when employment has replaced income assistance as the goal of
welfare policy. Full of theoretical sophistication and historical insight, Living Wages,
Equal Wages is feminist political economy at its best.”
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor of Women’s Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Wage setting has historically been a deeply political and cultural as well as an eco-
nomic process. This informative and accessible book explores how US wage regula-
tions 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
have 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.
Deborah M. Figart is Professor of Economics at Richard Stockton College, New
Jersey. Ellen Mutari is Assistant Professor of General Studies at Richard Stockton
College, New Jersey. Marilyn Power is a member of the Faculty of Economics at
Sarah Lawrence College, New York.
Routledge IAFFE Advances in Feminist Economics
Series editor: Jane Humphries
1 Living Wages, Equal Wages
Gender and labor market policies in the United States
Deborah M. Figart, Ellen Mutari, and Marilyn Power
Living Wages, Equal Wages
Gender and labor market policies in the
United States
Deborah M. Figart, Ellen Mutari, and
Marilyn Power
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2002 Deborah M. Figart, Ellen Mutari, and Marilyn Power
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-203-99413-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–27390–0 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–27391–9 (pbk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Series editor’s preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of abbreviations xiii
PART I
Laying the groundwork: methodological frameworks
and theoretical perspectives 1
1 Introduction: living wages, equal wages, and the
value of women’s work 3
2 Waged work in the twentieth century 16
3 Two faces of wages within the economics tradition:
wages as a living, wages as a price 34
4 The third face: wages as a social practice 52
PART II
Wage regulations in the twentieth century 65
5 An experiment in wage regulation: minimum wages
for women 67
6 A living for breadwinners: the federal minimum
wage 91
7 Job evaluation and the ideology of equal pay 120
8 Legislating equal wages 143
vi Contents
PART III
The century ahead 177
9 Living wages, equal wages revisited: contemporary
movements and policy initiatives 179
10 Applying feminist political economy to wage setting 208
Notes 221
References 231
Index 252
Illustrations
Plates
1.1 Secretary of Labor James Davis addressing the national
conference on women in industry, January 11, 1923 9
5.1 “The Woman Worker” poster 78
6.1 Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins 96
6.2 Women’s Bureau exhibit on minimum wage laws 106
7.1 “Scientists Might Prefer This,” the Armstrong Cork Company
advocating job evaluation 134
7.2 Job Evaluation: “How Does the Armstrong Plan Work?” 135
8.1 President John F. Kennedy signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963
in the White House Oval Office on June 10, 1963 162
9.1 “Where Is My 26¢?” 186
Figures
2.1 Total labor force participation by gender, 1900–2000 21
2.2 Labor force participation rates of married women, husband
present, by race, 1900–2000 24
2.3 Women’s labor force participation rates, by age, 1950–90 26
2.4 Percentage of family earnings contributed by wives, by ethnic
group, 1997 32
2.5 Gender-based wage ratio and wage gap, 1955–2000 33
9.1 Annual minimum wage earnings compared with weighted
average poverty thresholds, 1968–2000 185
10.1 A framework for understanding wage setting 210
Tables
2.1 Labor force composition, 1900–2000 19
2.2 Women’s civilian labor force participation rates, by marital
status, 1900–99 24
viii Illustrations
2.3 Labor force participation rates of married women, husband
present, by presence and age of children, 1950–99 25
2.4 U.S. wage earners by gender, 1900–90 27
2.5 Occupational distribution of black women, 1910–2000 29
2.6 Occupational distribution of white women, 1910–2000 29
2.7 Percent female by major occupation, 1900–2000 30
5.1 Minimum wage rates established in Washington, DC, 1919–21 86
7.1 Some major companies adopting job evaluation by 1940 126
8.1 State equal pay laws as of January 1, 1963 146
8.2 Language of state equal pay laws 148
8.3 Women’s organizations in favor of equal pay bills, 1945, 1948,
and 1963 152
8.4 Labor organizations in favor of equal pay bills, 1945, 1948,
and 1963 153
8.5 Testimony or statements in opposition to equal pay bills, 1945,
1948, and 1963 155
8.6 Annual salaries of 1958 college graduates in 1960 158
8.7 Advertised weekly wage rates in public employment offices,
1963 158
9.1 Living wage ordinances in order of their passage, 1994–2000 196
Series editor’s preface
The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) was formed
in 1992 in response to several critical concerns. Economics is a conservative
and narrow discipline. Many issues pertaining to the experiences, well-being,
and empowerment of women have received little attention. Scholars under-
taking feminist economic research and policy advocacy typically experience a
lack of support from their colleagues and institutions. Researchers and activ-
ists on women’s issues often work in isolation, and feminist researchers in
different parts of the world face difficulties in finding out about each other’s
work.
IAFFE seeks to combat these problems and to advance feminist inquiry
into economic issues. The organization aims to increase the visibility and
range of economic research on gender; to facilitate communication among
scholars, policy makers, and activists concerned with women’s well-being
and empowerment; to promote discussions among policy makers about
interventions which serve women’s needs; to educate economists, policy-
makers, and the general public about feminist perspectives on economic
issues; to foster feminist evaluations of economics as a discipline; to expose
the gender-blindness characteristic of much social science and the ways in
which this impoverishes all research, even research that does not explicitly
concern women’s issues; to help expand opportunities for women, especially
women from underrepresented groups, within economics; and, to encourage
the inclusion of feminist perspectives in the teaching of economics.
IAFFE pursues these ends through a variety of publishing and networking
activities. These include: the publication of the scholarly journal Feminist
Economics to present theoretical, empirical, policy-related, and method-
ological work on economic issues from a feminist perspective; the holding of
regular summer conferences where feminist work is presented and discussed;
and, the organization of panel sessions at national, regional, and inter-
national meetings of economists and researchers from related disciplines.
The IAFFE book series pursues the aims of the organization by providing a
forum in which scholars have space to develop their ideas at length and in
detail. The series exemplifies the value of feminist research and the high
standard of IAFFE-sponsored scholarship.