Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The New Orleans Campaign for a Living Wage(Sup. Court of Louisiana) and Rüffert (ECJ) mark recent developments across the Atlantic on the difficulties that local governments have in enforcing minimum wages policies in their jurisdictions. Recurrent arguments on both sides of the Atlantic challenge the fact that an increase in minimum wages policies enforced differently across the territory is detrimental to either the state or the national economic interest. By addressing the distributive consequences of these two cases this paper challenges the assumption that an increase of minimum wages by local governments is detrimental to the efficiency of common markets in the EU or the US.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: It is well-established that people have negative views about public assistance programs. At the same time, however, citizens are remarkably sympathetic towards the living wage and minimum wage. In this paper, we compare public attitudes towards various poverty amelioration activities. Using a public opinion survey of Northeastern city, we argue that the private sector focus of the living and minimum wages encourages popular support. Those who think the poor have genuine needs and that poverty is a big social problem are much more likely to support these remedies. By redefining poverty alleviation in a private sector framework, proponents reduce negative attitudes towards anti-poverty initiatives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using an unusually detailed definition of jobs (labor market-occupation-industry cells), I assess whether the Black-white wage gap increases as one ascends the wage hierarchy of local labor markets. Additionally, I test whether the tendency for Black-dominated jobs to pay less than other jobs is stronger among jobs that offer high pay relative to other jobs in the local labor market. There are several important results from the hierarchical linear models. First, although there is a substantial net pay penalty associated with Black-dominated jobs, this penalty is stronger for Black workers than Whites. Second, the job racial composition effect becomes weaker in high-paying jobs. In contrast, the net pay gap within jobs is positively associated with the overall pay in a job, implying that ensuring equal access to high-paying jobs will only a partially ameliorate Black-white wage inequality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Women are at the threshold of 'breaking the glass ceiling' in professional city management. This research assesses whether women continue to experience disparate treatment, compared to their male counterparts, in terms of wages and fringe benefits.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper provides the first estimates of the motherhood wage gap for U.S. immigrant women. Women’s wages have been found to decrease non-incrementally with additional children and the gap has been found to vary by demographic group. We estimate the gap for immigrant women with 58 broad and specific self reported ancestries. We find that the motherhood wage gap for immigrant women is similar in structure to that for native women and ranges from 2 to 8 percent among immigrant women with 1 to 4 or more children compared to a range of 4 to 15 percent for native women. The size of the gap varies by immigrant women’s ancestry. Canadian, Italian and German immigrant women have higher motherhood wage gaps than U.S. native women while gaps do not appear to exist among the largest groups of South Asian immigrant women. Additionally, motherhood wage gaps occur among higher numbers of ancestry groups as number of children increases from 1 to 3. We explore possible connections between the motherhood wage gap and variations in earnings, age and educational attainment by immigrant women’s ancestry and numbers of children