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PERI's Labor Markets and Living Wages program examines the causes and consequences of rising wage inequality and declining living standards for low-wage workers, in the U.S. economy and other countries as well. This research integrates policy approaches to reverse these long-term trends, focusing on living wage initiatives (raising the quality of employment), employment-targeted macroeconomic policies (increasing the quantity of employment), and international labor standards as complementary measures. For research on the labor market impacts of a transition to a clean-energy economy, please go to the Green Economics page. The Employment Benefits of Alternatives to Military SpendingIn this study, produced in collaboration with the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier update their 2007 analysis of the relative employment impacts of public investment in military versus other priorities, expanding their analysis to include clean energy investments and induced job creation. The authors compare the effects of a $1 billion investment in the military with the same investment in clean energy, health care, education, or individual tax cuts. They show that non-military investments create many more jobs across all pay ranges. With a large share of the federal budget at stake, Pollin and Garrett-Peltier make a strong case that non-military spending priorities can create significantly greater opportunities for decent employment throughout the U.S. economy than spending the same amount of funds with the military. Collective Bargaining as a Path to Decent JobsIn “Creating Decent Jobs in the United States,” Jeannette Wicks-Lim finds that to improve workers’ wages and benefits in the coming decade, we must create meaningful improvements in pay and benefits in the occupations showing the strongest growth, and that collective bargaining presents a powerful way to do so. Wicks-Lim finds that a union worker has a 20 percent greater chance of having a decent job than a similar non-union worker. The study also shows that there is no strong evidence that higher unionization rates lead to higher unemployment rates. >> Download “Creating Decent Jobs in the United States: The Role of Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining” Raising Living Standards During an Economic CrisisMay 2009 -- For Roll Call’s special issue on the future of the American worker, Robert Pollin explores how we can use this moment of crisis to address the decline in living standards for working families in the U.S. Pollin describes the dramatic downward trend in workers' wages and bargaining power over the past 35 years, and explores a few of the principle factors contributing to that history. He recommends one central approach to turn the trend around: restoring the idea of full employment at decent wages as a moral centerpiece of economic policy, as it was for a generation coming out of the 1930s depression. Pollin emphasizes the importance of enacting the Employee Free Choice Act as a major policy tool for advancing this broader social justice agenda. Promoting Living Wages During an Economic CrisisMarch 2009 -- In this column for Dollars & Sense, Assistant Research Professor Jeannette Wick-Lim asks the controversial question "Should we be talking about living wages now?" As she writes, "In today’s economic climate, the worst since the Great Depression, are the raises demanded by living-wage campaigns a luxury? Should living-wage campaigns take a back seat to pulling the economy out of recession?" Wicks-Lim argues that in this crisis economy the lowest-paid workers are the most vulnerable, and hence this is a moment when their rights and protections need to be supported with ongoing vigilance. She looks toward two policy prescriptions: using the economic recovery plan as a tool to impose living-wage requirements, and creating a long-term living-wage policy with multi-step raises guided by interim economic impact studies. Scholars in Support of the Employee Free Choice ActMarch 2009 -- High unemployment rates, rising wage inequality and declining living standards for working families all result, in part, from dramatic losses in bargaining power for workers over recent decades. The Employee Free Choice Act, which will protect and expand workers’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively, is a potentially powerful tool to reverse this trend, and faces likely legislative action in the coming months. With this in mind, PERI has added an EFCA resources page to our website, where we will post research, media coverage, and other useful information. The PERI Employee Free Choice Act Resource page also hosts a statement of support for the act by economists and other social scientists. Hundreds of scholars have already signed on to show their support for this critical legislative item. >> Go to the Employee Free Choice Act resource page How Infrastructure Investments Support the U.S. EconomyJanuary 2009 -- With the deterioration of economic conditions in recent months, public investment is back on the policy agenda, as a job-creation program linked to the need to revitalize the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. This report examines the employment impacts of an expanded infrastructure investment program and what it would take to create millions of jobs. It assesses the long-run impacts of such a program on productivity and economic growth, and offers brief observations on U.S. competitiveness and environmental sustainability that emerge from the findings. >> Download "How Infrastructure Investments Support the U.S. Economy" A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United StatesMarch 2008 -- Over the past decade, Robert Pollin, Mark Brenner, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, and Stephanie Luce of PERI have conducted extensive research on living wage and minimum wage proposals for municipalities and states around the country. A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States brings together much of this research. The book addresses basic questions such as: What is a living wage? Do living wage standards create unemployment and force businesses to relocate? How much do workers and their families actually benefit from establishing living wage standards? How much do communities gain when workers receive higher wages? As Carol Oppenheimer and Morty Simon, living wage organizers in Santa Fe write that A Measure of Fairness “is a must-read for local activists, economists, and all political leaders concerned with economic justice.” >> In this related interview, Jen Kern, Director of the ACORN Living Wage Resource Center offers her perspective on PERI's role in the living wage movement. |
