A Living Wage

by Glickman, Lawrence B.

• ISBN13: 9780801433573
• ISBN10: 0801433576
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-10-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

"A Living Wage", the rallying cry of activists, has a revealing history, here documented by Lawrence B. Glickman. The labor movement's response to wages shows how American workers negotiated the transition from artisan to consumer, opening up new political possibilities for organized workers and creating contradictions that continue to haunt the labor movement today. Nineteenth-century workers hoped to become self-employed artisans, rather than permanent "wage slaves". After the Civil War, however, unions redefined working-class identity in consumerist terms, and demanded a wage that would reward workers commensurate with their needs as consumers. This consumerist turn in labor ideology also led workers to struggle for shorter hours and union labels. First articulated in the 1870s, the demand for a living wage was voiced increasingly by labor leaders and reformers at the turn of the century. Glickman explores the racial, ethnic, and gender implications, as white male workers defined themselves in contrast to African Americans, women, Asians, and recent European immigrants. He shows how a historical perspective on the concept of a living wage can inform our understanding of current controversies.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix	(2)
Preface	xi
Introduction: Rethinking Wage Labor	1	(8)
Part I From Wage Slavery to the Living Wage	9	(46)
Chapter 1. That Curse of Modern Civilization	17	(18)
Chapter 2. Idle Men and Fallen Women	35	(20)
Part II The Social Economy	55	(38)
Chapter 3. Defining the Living Wage	61	(17)
Chapter 4. Inventing the American Standard of Living	78	(15)
Part III Workers of the World, Consume	93	(36)
Chapter 5. Merchants of Time	99	(9)
Chapter 6. Producers as Consumers	108	(21)
Part IV The Living Wage in the Twentieth Century	129	(28)
Chapter 7. Subsistence or Consumption?	133	(14)
Chapter 8. The Living Wage Incorporated	147	(10)
Coda: Interpreting the Living Wage and Consumption	157	(6)
Abbreviations Used in the Notes	163	(2)
Notes	165	(50)
Index	215