The popularity of the federal minimum wage has spawned ‘living wage’ laws in many urban areas across the United States. These local laws have heretofore mandated mostly modest pay increases and covered relatively few workers, so the economic impact has been minimal. There is, however, a growing trend of activism that threatens to severely damage the business climate by forcing employers to pay what is called a living wage, which could be considered astronomical in some places.
Aside from their obvious conflict with the sacred American principles of freedom of contracts, as well as freedom from coercion in labor markets, the various empirical problems associated with wage floors in general and the living wage laws in particular will be unveiled: 1) The criteria used for determining a ‘living wage’ are unreliable, as real living wages vary from place to place and from person to person; 2) the only reason the old living wage laws did not severely damage the economy was because they were toothless; 3) the new toothy living wage laws are virtually guaranteed to have serious negative spillover effects; and 4) the living wage movement is part of a dangerous trend of radical activism that has the potential to overpower political leadership in some places.
MONEY FOR NOTHING: THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPACT OF LIVING WAGE LAWS By Cameron
Minimum wage laws have become an integral part of American political economy, despite their antithetical stance toward the fundamental principles of freedom from coercion in labor markets, and the right to freely enter into contracts. The minimum wage is something of a phenomenon because the vast majority of Americans, regardless of social or ideological differences, esteem the policy as an appropriate use of the state to promote healthy labor relations (1). The popularity of the minimum wage puzzles some economists (2), but since the drain on the economy is miniscule, while the gain for politicians is abundant, the minimum wage is a seemingly endless political gold mine. The crusade for additional legislation to raise the minimum wage in some places to a ‘living wage’ epitomizes Americans’ boundless—and perhaps unhealthy—appetite for state interventionism in wage determination.
FROM THE MINIMUM WAGE TO A LIVING WAGE
The living wage is not the same as the minimum wage (3). The federal minimum wage has been in place since 1938 when it was set at just 25 cents per hour (4), which appears to be very low even when adjusted for inflation. According to Rogers, the first minimum wage law was more about preventing the outright exploitation of vulnerable workers than raising the real wages of breadwinners (5). Ironically, the fact that the minimum wage was never intended to provide subsistence income for heads of households may have actually been a concession to organized labor. Stapleford reports that Samuel Gompers, who was among the earliest agitators for a respectable living wage (6), never called for a government-mandated minimum wage and believed that such a law actually had the potential to hinder the bargaining power of workers (7).
Times have changed. The modern labor movement, which has lost almost all of its national influence but is still strong in the cities, is firmly in favor of a mandated living wage. Luce reports that labor activists encountered too much opposition when lobbying to raise the federal minimum wage, so they found a niche in liberal urban centers where they could more easily exert pressure on local officials to give in to their demands (8). “Unions, community and faith groups had better chances to mobilize members to visit City Council members and lobby on a regular basis,” writes Luce (9). Under such heavy political pressure concentrated in a small geographical area, urban policymakers caved in.
Many municipalities now have a living wage policy, and twenty-three states as well as the District of Columbia have minimum wages above the federal level as of August 2014 (10). According to Clain, the statewide minimum wage laws do not have much of an effect on poverty reduction, but the living wage laws moderately reduce poverty at the local level (11). The local laws will be the primary subjects of this investigation.
TYPES OF LIVING WAGE LAWS
Over 140 living wage ordinances are currently in effect throughout the nation, writes Luce, and they can be found in all types of places, from small towns to large cities (12). There are three basic types of living wage laws. Most are designed to cover only a few select industries and do not simply mandate a higher minimum wage for a given district: “Living wage legislation generally applies to a limited number of employers whereas minimum wage legislation applies much more broadly,” writes Clain (13).
The first and most common type of living wage law applies only to private contractors working for the city. Luce reports that while most living wage laws apply to firms doing business with the municipality in some direct or indirect manner, the kinds of private industries and workers covered under these laws are extraordinarily arbitrary and vary from city to city (14). In reality, this type of living wage law only applies to a very small number of workers, according to Clain: “Estimates of the numbers of workers covered by living wage legislation are quite modest, around 1 to at most 2% of workers in the lowest quartile of the wage distribution (15).” Not surprisingly, these laws have a negligible economic impact, according to Adams & Neumark: “[L]iving wage laws that apply only to city contractors do not have detectable effects on wages or employment of low-skill individuals, nor on poverty rates (16).”
The next type of living wage law is a sort of publicly-financed minimum wage that applies more broadly. It is usually not merely a matter of taxpayers making up the difference between the market wage and the mandated wage, although this could very well be happening indirectly. According to Adams & Neumark, the city typically extends some kind of concession to employers in the form of tax breaks, low-interest loans, financial assistance, grants, or some other form of support to help defray the increased cost of labor (17). Unlike the narrowly-focused laws involving only city contractors, these more expansive living wage laws do show significant statistical changes (18); wages tend to increase while net poverty goes down, but there is also a negative effect on employment, write Adams & Neumark (19). In another article, they confirm that the positive effect on wages seems to be a tradeoff for the negative effect on employment (20).
The final step in the evolution of living wage laws is a comprehensive minimum wage far above the federal or state levels, with businesses having no expectation of reimbursement from the government. Laws of this type are still in their infant stage, but in April of 2015 Seattle will begin to phase in what stands to be the most extensive living wage law in the nation, culminating in a citywide minimum wage of $15 per hour (21).
LIVING WAGE DETERMINATION
Before debating the merits of living wage laws, the question of whether there really is a way to determine the living wage cannot be casually overlooked. Proponents of the living wage use that term as if it were based on some indisputable mathematical equation, yet hardly anyone inquires as to how they derive their figures. If the living wage in Seattle is truly $15, all is well, but that figure is undoubtedly the product of political haggling between activists and politicians, not economic evaluation. The fact of the matter, according to Anker, is that there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a living wage (22). Nevertheless, those who promote living wage legislation must necessarily decide on a concrete number that supposedly covers the cost of living. The figures they offer need to be scrutinized more closely.
If the living wage is truly what its proponents say it is, namely, the minimum level of income needed for a respectable material existence (23), then it would seem logical for it to be tied to the poverty threshold. Remember that the original minimum wage could not have been linked to the poverty line because the federal government did not begin putting out official poverty data until 1965 (24), several decades after the first minimum wage. Remember also that it was never intended to be a living wage. However, since official poverty data are now available, it would only make sense to consult them when refashioning the minimum wage into a living wage.
Unfortunately, even poverty measurement is not an exact science. While poverty rates are measured at every level—from the nation as a whole right down to individual localities (25) —sub-national poverty guidelines are only provided for Alaska and Hawaii (26). Additionally, the reliability of the official poverty rate is in question (27). In the opinion of Eberstadt, “The official poverty rate is incapable of representing what it was devised to portray: namely, a constant level of absolute need in American society” (28). Further criticism is leveled by Cushing & Zheng who contend that the statistics used to measure poverty in the U.S. are arbitrary (29). They believe that “Poverty in the United States varies greatly by location” (30), and that official reports put out by the government tend to overstate poverty in urban areas (31). Pollin points out that “The poverty benchmarks also take no account of regional differences in the cost of living” (32).
Still, the federal data are better than nothing. In 2014, the federal government set the poverty guideline at $23,850 for a family of four ($11,670 for an individual) (33). That suggests that a provider for a family of four would need to net only $11.47 per hour to stay out of poverty (an individual would need to net only $5.61) based on a forty-hour workweek over fifty-two weeks. Luce reports that “Most US living wage ordinances have set the living wage to the federal poverty line for a full-time worker with a family of three or four, although a few are set at 110 per cent or 120 per cent of that level” (34). These laws may also include cost-of-living increases, and rules that require employers to pay up to $2.00 more hourly if they do not provide health insurance, writes Luce (35).
There is no getting around the subjective nature of living wage determination. Economists and activists are clearly using different formulae and their results fluctuate wildly. In 2008, the AFL-CIO upheld the supposed findings of a group of student activists at Harvard who concluded that the living wage is precisely $10.25 per hour (36). Pollin suggests using 140% of the poverty level as a benchmark, which would set the living wage at somewhere between $11.50 and $14.40 per hour for a single mother with two children, depending on the local cost of living (37). According to the enhanced criteria used by the Economic Policy Institute, writes Pollin, the living wage could reach astronomical levels; that single mother would need to earn as much as $31.60 per hour (in 2009 dollars) in a high-cost city (38).
Before completely descending into madness, it should be pointed out that very few minimum wage earners are actually heads of households. Smith & Vavrichek provide these statistics on minimum wage earners: 44% are teenagers; 62% live with other adult relatives; only 11% live alone or with children solely; only 30% work 35 hours or more per week; and two-thirds are under age 25 (39). In these troubled economic times, there are certainly some well-educated professionals supporting large families who have found themselves in a minimum wage job because of some hardship, but they are the exception, not the rule. Making economic policy based on the assumption that most minimum wage earners are heads of households is irresponsible and contrary to the facts.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AN INCREASED MINIMUM WAGE
Because it is usually set so low, apologists for the minimum wage have heretofore gotten away with dismissing its negative consequences, such as an increase in consumer prices to offset the higher wage. Pollin admits this economic reality, but he does not believe that modest increases in the minimum wage will drastically affect consumer prices or consumption habits (40). However, in the example he cites, the minimum wage is only $8.50 (41). A minimum wage of $15 certainly has the potential to affect final prices, and at over $30 the economic ramifications would be mind-boggling. At these levels it is virtually guaranteed that the economy will be severely damaged by dramatic increases in prices and unemployment, along with a huge drop in consumer spending.
Pollin concedes that “It is certainly true that raising the minimum wage too high or too rapidly will discourage businesses from hiring low-wage workers” (42). The fact is that any minimum wage law can have a deleterious effect on employment, writes Shaviro (43). “Most economists of all ideological persuasions have long agreed that it destroys jobs in the low-wage sector of the economy and thus hurts many of the people it is intended to help” (44). Fairris & Bujanda recognize that one of the effects of a minimum wage is that employers tend to replace low-skilled workers with high-skill workers (45). Shaviro writes that “Although a minimum wage could conceivably increase total income among low-wage workers…any such increase would accrue only to those who kept their jobs, leaving the least skilled as the likely losers” (46). Smith & Vavrichek reiterate the fact that increasing the minimum wage will most likely shut workers who lack skill or experience out of jobs (47), and Abdulahad & Guirguis report on their findings:
[P]art-time workers, teenagers, and minority groups experience the steepest decline in employment because of [sic] federal minimum wage. Thus, we expect the employment losses for such groups to be more pronounced in case of the higher living wages and the state minimum wage. This may be consistent with the claim of some business leaders who may be affected by the higher minimum and living wages and who say that higher wages could shut down small firms, discourage development and take a hefty toll on taxpayers. (48)This would have a devastating effect on younger workers for whom job experience may be a more important form of remuneration than cash. A glaring weakness in the arguments of living wage proponents is their failure to recognize that there are benefits that accompany low-wage employment besides simple monetary compensation. Another blind spot is their reluctance to fully take into account the repercussions living wage laws have on the real economy, except for their positive income effects. Such parochialism will not serve when trying to ascertain whether the living wage is good policy.
DO LIVING WAGE LAWS PROVIDE A NET BENEFIT?
There is a remarkable dearth of data showing the economic impact of wage floors, and there are several legitimate excuses for this. Firstly, the state and federal minimum wages have been too low to demonstrate any significant economic impact. Secondly, the most common types of living wage laws apply only to a microscopic segment of the workforce and therefore the results are mostly immeasurable. Thirdly, most citywide minimum wages are still fairly low, yielding scant spillover effects. Lastly, the extravagant citywide minimum wages such as Seattle’s will not be fully implemented for years, so the effects are yet unknown. The only way to evaluate the economic impact of augmented wage floors is by piecing together the few studies that have been done on the subject.
The fact that living wage laws have shown a positive effect on wages should not be misconstrued to suggest that the policy has been an empirical success. Neumark & Adams explain that “[T]he evidence of potentially offsetting disemployment effects implies that this research will have to grapple with the question of whether living wage laws, on balance, help low-wage workers and low-income families” (49). The fact that wage floors cause a tradeoff between wages and employment is a given. If the only question is which of these criteria is most important, that is a matter of economists’ personal preferences. Kaufman criticizes other economists for focusing too narrowly on one aspect of the minimum wage, namely the competitiveness of labor markets, but he falls into the same trap because the criteria he would prefer to use when evaluating minimum wage laws ignore the cost of labor (50). The exact labor price at which an employer will begin to make significant changes varies according to the needs of the individual business. Rogers contends that minimum wages are typically set at levels too low to increase unemployment, but he concedes that at some point, higher wage floors will inevitably do so (51). According to Brecher, employers confronting a nationwide minimum wage that is too high can only respond by employing fewer workers or, in extreme cases, they will look to do business outside the country (52). State and local minimum wages do not require such drastic measures; the flight to safety may be only a few city blocks from the offending province. This dynamic deserves more attention.
SUBSTITUTION EFFECTS
It would be laughable if a municipality passed a law mandating an exorbitant minimum wage for shops on one side of a street but not the other, yet that is precisely what is going on in the real economy. If someone is considering opening a business in a city with a living wage, there is a good probability it will be located just beyond city limits, where the law does not apply. This would harm established businesses within the city that must compete against the lower prices the new business can afford to offer. Over time, those businesses in the city may relocate to the suburbs, leaving the urban center to stagnate and decay. Melvin explains what could happen to unemployment in this scenario:
If wage floors differ among regions, then real wages would be expected to differ and interregional labor migration would result. It was shown that a region with a heavily unionized capital-intensive sector with a minimum wage (or a union) in the other sector could have both unemployment and high wages and could attract even more labor from other regions, further exacerbating the unemployment problem. (53)In an economy that is still at least partially free, there is no doubt that workers, businesses, and consumers will adjust their behavior around whatever changes are made to wage floors. The substitution effects are virtually endless.
For an overly simplified example, suppose a $15 hourly wage is mandated for a construction company contracting with the city. This would theoretically benefit the flag wavers whose market wage is closer to $10 per hour, but what would this do to the skilled laborers whose market wage should be $20 per hour? The higher wage the skilled laborers deserve could be pulled down to offset the increased cost of the flag wavers’ labor, but it is much more likely that many of the flag wavers will simply be laid off.
As the mandated salaries for unskilled workers approach the market rates for skilled ones, there is less of an incentive to learn a trade. Over time, increasing numbers of job-seekers in a locality tend to specialize in flag waving instead of carpentry, welding, or masonry—not to mention engineering, science, or medicine—which may have been professions better suited to the talents of the flag waver if the incentives had not been skewed toward complacency and instant gratification.
CONCLUSION
Since it became federal law in the 1930s, the minimum wage had historically been an issue of almost no economic import; it usually only affected such a tiny portion of the economy that any negative effects went largely unnoticed. Wage floors usually have a directly proportionate negative impact on employment the further they are increased above the market wage. Until now, minimum wage laws have generally had no appreciable adverse effect on the economy because they basically set the wage floor at the market rate, or just slightly above it, so the cost of labor was mostly unchanged. Living wage laws, however, are a completely different story; they set the wage floor at a rate that is much higher than the market rate for many jobs. The increased cost of labor is substantial enough to have noticeable economic consequences, and, depending on how high the living wage is raised, these consequences could be profound.
It certainly would not be a bad thing if all minimum wage laws in the United States were repealed. In all likelihood, such an action would have almost no effect on real wages, since the market wage is probably at or close to the mandated wage. At the very least, any new legislation must be stopped immediately, especially the living wage laws that never seem to have an upper limit. The greed and covetousness of some in the living wage movement is bursting the limits of the Eighth and Tenth Commandments (54).
Living wage advocates should be chastised for their faulty assumption that only government action and collective bargaining can raise wages. The best way to increase wages is to lower the unemployment rate, which shifts the labor supply curve in favor of workers and forces employers to compete for labor. Living wage laws only hamper the ability of employees to demand higher wages because they increase unemployment. The resulting increase in the supply of labor puts workers in a weaker bargaining position.
The overwhelming majority of wages are well above the mandated floor because of free interaction between employees and employers, not because of picketing, harassment, or intimidation—all of which have become disturbingly commonplace in the living wage movement. The incessant crusade to push up wage floors could have dire political ramifications. Campaigns for living wage legislation rarely fail, despite fierce opposition from business, writes Luce (55). As the pressure mounts on political leadership to raise wage floors, there is the frightening possibility that the balance of power between labor and business could shift so far in the direction of labor that not only the economy but the entire political structure in some places will be severely damaged if not ruined. It is not hyperbole to declare that, without strong leadership, many great cities in the United States are in jeopardy of essentially being taken over by radical activism. It is the job of economically literate political leaders to sound the alarm when the public zeal threatens the public weal, and too many of them have shirked their responsibilities.
The unintended consequences of an extremely high minimum wage are countless. In a nation that still offers some degree of freedom in terms of choosing one’s occupation and place of residence—although those would be next on the chopping block after the freedom to sell one’s labor is infringed—it is unlikely that a single aspect of American life would remain unaffected by such a misguided policy. Not only does it abolish freedom from coercion, which is at the core of every other form of liberty, but it fosters a political environment in which victory goes to those who protest and conspire against their fellow citizens instead of working with them. If this is not un-American, nothing is.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Abdulahad, Faraj & Hany S. Guirguis. "The Living Wage and the Effects of Real Minimum Wages on Part-Time and Teen Employment." Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal 15, no. 1 (March 2003): 1-9.
Adams, Scott & David Neumark. "When Do Living Wages Bite?." Industrial Relations 44, no. 1 (January 2005): 164-192. Anker, Richard. "Living Wages Around the World: A New Methodology and Internationally Comparable Estimates." International Labour Review 145, no. 4 (December 2006): 308-338.
Brecher, Richard A. "Minimum Wage Rates and the Pure Theory of International Trade." Quarterly Journal Of Economics 88, no. 1 (February 1974): 98-116.
Clain, Suzanne. "How Living Wage Legislation Affects U.S. Poverty Rates." Journal Of Labor Research 29, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 205-218.
Cushing, Brian & Buhong Zheng. "Re-evaluating Differences in Poverty among Central City, Suburban, and Nonmetropolitan Areas of the US." Applied Economics 32, no. 5 (April 2000): 653-660.
Eberstadt, Nicholas. "Material Deprivation, the ‘Poverty Rate’ and Household Expenditure in Modern America." Economic Affairs 27, no. 3 (September 2007): 15-23.
Fairris, David & Leon Fernandez Bujanda. "The Dissipation of Minimum Wage Gains for Workers through Labor-Labor Substitution: Evidence from the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance." Southern Economic Journal 75, no. 2 (October 2008): 473-496.
Kaufman, Bruce E. "Institutional Economics and the Minimum Wage: Broadening the Theoretical and Policy Debate." Industrial & Labor Relations Review 63, no. 3 (April 2010): 427-453.
Luce, Stephanie. "Living Wage Policies and Campaigns: Lessons from the United States." International Journal Of Labour Research 4, no. 1 (January 2012): 11-26.
Melvin, James R. "The International and Interregional Effects of Minimum Wages and Unionization." International Trade Journal 2, no. 3 (Spring 1988): 223-246.
National Conference of State Legislatures. “State Minimum Wages: 2014 Minimum Wage by State.” Accessed November 19, 2014: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx.
Neumark, David & Scott Adams. "Detecting Effects of Living Wage Laws." Industrial Relations 42, no. 4 (October 2003): 531-564.
Pollin, Robert. "Economic Prospects: Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage." New Labor Forum (Routledge) 16, no. 2 (April 2007): 103-107.
Rogers, Brishen. "Justice at Work: Minimum Wage Laws and Social Equality." Texas Law Review 92, no. 6 (May 2014): 1543-1598. Seattle.gov. “$15 Minimum Wage.” Accessed November 19, 2014: http://murray.seattle.gov/minimumwage/#sthash.TGMgZjEJ.C3keWfYm.dpbs
Shaviro, Daniel. “The Minimum Wage, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Optimal Subsidy Policy.” University of Chicago Law Review 406, no. 64 (1997): 405-482.
Smith, Ralph E. & Bruce Vavrichek. "The Wage Mobility of Minimum Wage Workers." Industrial & Labor Relations Review 46, no. 1 (October 1992): 82-88.
Stapleford, Thomas A. "Defining a 'Living Wage' in America: Transformations in Union Wage Theories, 1870-1930." Labor History 49, no. 1 (February 2008): 1-22.
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NOTES:
(1) Brishen Rogers, "Justice at Work: Minimum Wage Laws and Social Equality." Texas Law Review 92, no. 6 (May 2014), 1544-1545.
(2) Daniel Shaviro, “The Minimum Wage, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Optimal Subsidy Policy,” University of Chicago Law Review 406, no. 64 (1997), 406.
(3) Faraj Abdulahad & Hany S. Guirguis, "The Living Wage and the Effects of Real Minimum Wages on Part-Time and Teen Employment," Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal 15, no. 1 (March 2003), 3.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Rogers, “Justice at Work,” 1544.
(6) Thomas A. Stapleford, "Defining a 'Living Wage' in America: Transformations in Union Wage Theories, 1870-1930," Labor History 49, no. 1 (February 2008), 2-3.
(7) Ibid., 3.
(8) Stephanie Luce, "Living Wage Policies and Campaigns: Lessons from the United States," International Journal Of Labour Research 4, no. 1 (January 2012), 15.
(9) Ibid.
(10) National Conference of State Legislatures, “State Minimum Wages: 2014 Minimum Wage by State,” Accessed November 19, 2014: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx
(11) Suzanne Clain, "How Living Wage Legislation Affects U.S. Poverty Rates," Journal Of Labor Research 29, no. 3 (Summer 2008), 206.
(12) Luce, “Living Wage Policies,” 19.
(13) Clain, “How Living Wage Legislation,” 206.
(14) Luce, “Living Wage Policies,” 14.
(15) Clain, “How Living Wage Legislation,” 206
(16) Scott Adams & David Neumark, "When Do Living Wages Bite?," Industrial Relations 44, no. 1 (January 2005), 164.
(17) Ibid., 164-165.
(18) Ibid., 164.
(19) Ibid., 165.
(20) David Neumark & Scott Adams. "Detecting Effects of Living Wage Laws." Industrial Relations 42, no. 4 (October 2003), 531.
(21) Seattle.gov, “$15 Minimum Wage,” Passed Legislation Section, Accessed November 19, 2014: http://murray.seattle.gov/minimumwage/#sthash.TGMgZjEJ.C3keWfYm.dpbs
(22) Richard Anker, "Living Wages Around the World: A New Methodology and Internationally Comparable Estimates," International Labour Review 145, no. 4 (December 2006), 310.
(23) Stapleford, “Defining a ‘Living Wage’,” 2-3.
(24) Nicholas Eberstadt, "Material Deprivation, the ‘Poverty Rate’ and Household Expenditure in Modern America," Economic Affairs 27, no. 3 (September 2007), 15.
(25) Ibid.
(26) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “2014 Poverty Guidelines,” Accessed December 2, 2014: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm
(27) Eberstadt, “Material Deprivation,” 15.
(28) Ibid., 23.
(29) Brian Cushing & Buhong Zheng, "Re-evaluating Differences in Poverty among Central City, Suburban, and Nonmetropolitan Areas of the US," Applied Economics 32, no. 5 (April 2000), 653.
(30) Ibid.
(31) Ibid.
(32) Robert Pollin, "Economic Prospects: Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage," New Labor Forum (Routledge) 16, no. 2 (April 2007), 104.
(33) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “2014 Poverty Guidelines.”
(34) Luce, “Living Wage Policies,” 13.
(35) Ibid.
(36) Stapleford, “Defining a ‘Living Wage’,” 1.
(37) Pollin, “Economic Prospects,” 104.
(38) Ibid.
(39) Ralph E. Smith & Bruce Vavrichek, "The Wage Mobility of Minimum Wage Workers," Industrial & Labor Relations Review 46, no. 1 (October 1992), 84.
(40) Pollin, “Economic Prospects,” 105-106.
(41) Ibid.
(42) Ibid., 105.
(43) Shaviro, “The Minimum Wage,” 406.
(44) Ibid.
(45) David Fairris & Leon Fernandez Bujanda, "The Dissipation of Minimum Wage Gains for Workers through Labor-Labor Substitution: Evidence from the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance," Southern Economic Journal 75, no. 2 (October 2008), 473.
(46) Shaviro, “The Minimum Wage,” 406.
(47) Smith & Vavrichek, “The Wage Mobility,” 88.
(48) Abdulahad & Guirguis, “The Living Wage,” 7.
(49) Neumark & Adams, “Detecting Effects,” 563.
(50) Bruce E Kaufman, "Institutional Economics and the Minimum Wage: Broadening the Theoretical and Policy Debate," Industrial & Labor Relations Review 63, no. 3 (April 2010), 427.
(51) Rogers, “Justice at Work,” 1547-1548.
(52) Richard A. Brecher, "Minimum Wage Rates and the Pure Theory of International Trade," Quarterly Journal Of Economics 88, no. 1 (February 1974), 116.
(53) James R. Melvin, "The International and Interregional Effects of Minimum Wages and Unionization," International Trade Journal 2, no. 3 (Spring 1988), 244.
(54) Exodus 20:15,17.
(55) Luce, “Living Wage Policies,” 19.
