The Living Wage

The Living Wage

Alvin Sherman Library 4009

While the U.S. economy experienced unprecedented growth in income and wealth during the 1990's a significant portion of the working age population did not share in these gains. Specifically, those full time workers earning minimum wage fell behind as any gains in the minimum wage were more than offset by increases in the cost of living. It is not unusual for the family income of minimum wage workers to fall below the poverty level of income. To address this issue many local governments are now evaluating the possibility of requiring vendors who do business with the local government to pay their employees a “living wage”.

Miami Dade county officials adopted the “living wage” concept in 1999. It was the first governmental unit in Florida to do so.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the costs and benefits of this policy on Miami Dade county, its vendors and their employees, and to determine if this is a cost effective method to raise the incomes of the working poor.