Social Security and Wage Poverty Historical and Policy Aspects of Subsidising Wages in Britain and Beyond

by Grover, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781137293961
• ISBN10: 1137293969
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-03-02
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Social Security and Wage Poverty is the first book to comprehensively examine debates about, and the practice of, the state supplementing wages. Chris Grover charts the historical development of such policies from prohibition in the 1830s and how opposition to it was overcome in the 1970s, thereby allowing the increasing supplementation of the wages of poorly paid working people. He draws upon original archival research to show that over time wage supplements have been seen as both deeply problematic for, and of great benefit to, the economy, and to the moral and social life of wage workers. In analyzing the political economy of wage supplements, Grover also deals with gendered assumptions about the role of women in wage work and 'the family', which have framed the use and critique of wage supplements. He focuses on Britain, but also examines wage supplements in New Zealand and the USA.

Author Biography

Chris Grover is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Lancaster University, UK. Interested in political economy, he has written extensively on relationships between wage work and social security policy. His recent books include an edited collection (with Linda Piggott) on disability benefits and work, and the loaning of social security payments.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Wage supplements and the New Poor Law
3. Wage supplements and poor relief in the 1920s: Norfolk's agricultural labourers
4. Wage supplements and Public Assistance in the 1930s: Lancashire's cotton weavers
5. Family Allowance, the 'rediscovery of poverty' and the rejection of means-tested wage supplements
6. Family Income Supplement: reintroducing means-tested wage supplements
7. Family Credit, wage suppression and the 'think tank'
8. Tax Credits, wage worklessness and child poverty
9. Universal Credit: wage supplements and 'mini jobs'
10. Minimum and 'living' wages: alternatives to wage supplements?
11. International experiences of wage supplements: New Zealand and the USA
12. Conclusion