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Parasitic-Industries Analysis And Arguments For A Living Wage For Women In The Early Twentieth-Century United States

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Author Info
Marilyn Power
Abstract

This paper examines arguments by activists and economists surrounding attempts to establish minimum wages for women in the United States in the Progressive Era. In particular, the paper focuses on analyses based on Beatrice and SidneyWebbs' argument that industries paying less than a living wage were "parasitic" on the society, a net drain on macro-efficiency. This analysis, widely accepted among economists of the time, viewed women as particularly vulnerable workers facing labor markets that were institutionally constructed and predatory. Unequal gender roles, employer power, and the absence of collective bargaining could all result in wages that were socially unacceptable as well as economically nonoptimal. These debates offer insights for modern feminist wage theories, and for current living wage campaigns.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Feminist Economics.

Volume (Year): 5 (1999)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 61-78
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Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:5:y:1999:i:1:p:61-78

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Related research
Keywords: Minimum Wage; Living Wage; Parasitic-industries; Wage Determination; Feminist; Economics; History Of Economic Thought;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Beneria, Lourdes, 1992. "Accounting for women's work: the progress of two decades," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(11), pages 1547-1560, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Duncan Ironmonger, 1996. "Counting outputs, capital inputs and caring labor: Estimating gross household product," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 2(3), pages 37-64, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Figart, Deborah M, 1997. "Gender as More Than a Dummy Variable: Feminist Approaches to Discrimination," Review of Social Economy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 55(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
  4. Kathleen Cloud, Nancy Garrett, 1997. "A Modest Proposal for Inclusion of Women's Household Human Capital Production in Analysis of Structural Transformation," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 151-177, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Robert E. Prasch, 2000. "John Bates Clark’S Defense Of Mandatory Arbitration And Minimum Wage Legislation," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 251-263, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Seguino, Stephanie, 2003. "Taking gender differences in bargaining power seriously: Equity, labor standards, and living wages
    [Gender Equality through Labor Standards and Living Wages: An Exploration of the Issues for Asian     ," MPRA Paper 6508, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2003. [Downloadable!]
  3. Robert Prasch, 2004. "The Social Cost of Labor," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0427, Middlebury College, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Ellen Mutari, Deborah M. Figart, Marilyn Power, 2001. "Implicit Wage Theories In Equal Pay Debates In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 23-52, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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