Word: waged
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...begin with the economic argument, though fiscal considerations ought to factor only minimally for two reasons. First, instituting the living wage for 1,000 workers would cost Harvard less than one half of a percent of its annual operating budget of over $1.5 billion. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Harvard's decisions as an educational institution, not as a disinterested corporation, carry didactic messages for its students...
...living wage will not result in significant labor cutbacks, despite arguments to the contrary. Romeo cleans the dining hall by himself; Joe alone watches the Science Center. They cannot be downsized. Most employees at Harvard work in the service sector where the labor market demand is fairly inelastic, and so a living wage does not risk their jobs...
...Higher wages also lead to lower turnover, lower absenteeism, and higher morale-windfalls that offset increased labor costs; in the long run, the University might even save money. Cities that have passed living wage ordinances have not experienced the capital flight and labor retrenchment predicted by wide-eyed libertarian Cassandras...
...ethical case for paying workers a living wage-even if it is higher than the student rate-is more fundamental to the Harvard Living Wage Campaign. The argument hinges on what legal scholar Ronald Dworkin defines as the difference between treatment as an equal and equal treatment. Treatment as an equal mandates that Harvard regard all its community members with equal concern and respect. This does not mean that all community members are equally capable, admirable or successful. It means that all members of the community are equally important. Equal treatment, on the other hand, is the arithmetically equal distribution...
...some cases, treatment as an equal prescribes equal treatment, for example, when you split a pizza with your roommates. This is not the case with workers where treatment as an equal implies higher wages for workers. Bob, 48, works in the kitchen and faces an expiring rent subsidy. "It's scary," he says about his $7 per hour wage. "I'm saving everything I've got." Paying him the same amount a student earns to fund weekend activities and books would violate the treatment as an equal principle on two grounds. First, Bob's need for shelter would be relegated...