Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2005): Minimum Wage - UK

LIVING WAGES AND THE "MAKING WORK PAY" STRATEGY

C. Grover

Critical Social policy, no.82, 2005, p.5-27

Living wages offer an alternative approach to New Labour's "making work pay" strategy which relies on a combination of minimum wage regulation and in-work benefits to alleviate poverty among the low-paid. Author compares the two strategies and concludes that they are similar in buttressing capitalism and institutionalising stereotypes of women as dependants and carers.