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The Raise the Wage Act Could Lower Housing Cost Burden and Advance Racial Equity

dc.contributor.authorWeaver, Russell
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-03T17:06:10Z
dc.date.available2021-08-03T17:06:10Z
dc.date.issued2021-03
dc.description.abstractThis article frames the federal Raise the Wage Act – a policy proposal to simultaneously raise the federal minimum wage and eliminate the existing two-tiered minimum wage system – as a targeted mechanism for increasing the income of low-wage workers (and, especially, low-wage workers of color), in pursuit of more universal goals of housing security and racial equity. The memo draws on data from the U.S. Census Bureau as part of a case study to show that “Raise the Wage” would meaningfully reduce housing cost-burden in the city of Buffalo, NY, particularly for households headed by persons of color. At bottom, the findings from this memo suggest that many low-income households stand to gain some measure of financial and housing security under the Raise the Wage Act. However, so long as wealth and power remain concentrated at the top of existing social hierarchies — or, more to the point, so long as existing social hierarchies remain in place — these marginal gains will be temporary at best. Thus, while raising the wage is an important near-term action for targeting more income to working people and families right now, for it to be a step up to the High Road – and not just another lateral move along the Low Road – the policy needs to be situated in a longer-term strategy to provide ordinary people with the means, resources, and infrastructure they need to live flourishing lives as members of self-determining communities.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/104227
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.subjecthousing affordabilityen_US
dc.subjectHigh Road Policyen_US
dc.subjectracial equityen_US
dc.subjectminimum wageen_US
dc.subjecthousing securityen_US
dc.titleThe Raise the Wage Act Could Lower Housing Cost Burden and Advance Racial Equityen_US
dc.typereporten_US
dcterms.licensehttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/104228
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schema.accessibilityFeaturehighContractDisplayen_US
schema.accessibilityFeaturereadingOrderen_US
schema.accessibilityFeaturestructuralNavigationen_US
schema.accessibilityFeaturetaggedPDFen_US
schema.accessibilityHazardnoneen_US
schema.accessibilitySummaryAccessible pdfen_US

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