Exploitation, Working Poverty, and the Expressive Power of Wages

Dobos, Ned

doi:10.1111/japp.12314

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This is because the nature and value of relations between individuals, including between employers and employees, are a function of distribution of resources between them. 16 A second function of cash is to enhance an individual's capacity to find employment on terms that suit her interests. 17 The most obvious way in which higher wages do this is by increasing an individual's bargaining power, meaning that she can more credibly threaten to resign unless her employer reforms her terms of employment in ways that she values.…”

Section: The Transformative Potential Of Cashmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Cash We Trust?

Parr

2022

J Applied Philosophy

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Many individuals have miserable work lives, in which they must toil away at mind-numbing yet exhausting tasks for hours on end, being ordered about by their superiors, perhaps with few guarantees that this source of income will persist for very long. However, this is only half of the story: what is centrally important is that many of those who endure these conditions are denied a fair wage in return for the burdens that they bear. In this article, I reflect on the significance of this fact in order to argue for the evaporation thesis. This thesis holds that individuals' claims to particular employment-related protections from their government disappear as their earnings increase. In the course of defending this position, I explore the moral difference an employee's wage offer makes to the work conditions that we can expect her to accept, including why there are limits to the role that cash can play here.You see, no labor is really menial unless you're not getting adequate wages. People are always talking about menial labor. But if you're getting a good wage … that isn't menial labor. What makes it menial is the income, the wages.

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Section: The Transformative Potential Of Cashmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Cash We Trust?

Parr

2022

J Applied Philosophy

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“…Alternatively, it can be grounded in the so-called expressive theory of valuation, according to which wages have expressive power. This means that wages express to the worker how valuable his or her labour is (Dobos 2018). Once again, the relevant benefits or utility need not be confined to corporate profits but can also be social utility in a broader sense.…”

Section: Desert-based Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CEO Pay and the Argument from Peer Comparison

Sandberg

Andersson

2020

J Bus Ethics

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Chief executive officers (CEOs) are typically paid great amounts of money in wages and bonuses by commercial companies. This is sometimes defended with an argument from peer comparison; roughly that “our” CEO has to be paid in accordance with what other CEOs at comparable companies get. At first glance this seems like a poor excuse for morally outrageous pay schemes and, consequently, the argument has been ignored in the previous philosophical literature. In contrast, however, this article provides a partial defence of the argument from peer comparison. Moreover, it is demonstrated how a serious consideration of this argument sheds further light on both incentive- and desert-based theories of just pay.

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“…Quite simply, workers who play by the rules, these advocates argue, should not have to struggle to get by. Low-wage work demeans and exploits workers (Dobos, 2018). We have a collective responsibility as a society to return dignity to work and workers (Thistlethwaite, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Experts’ Arguments for Increasing the Minimum Wage

Steiner¹,

Wexler²,

Engel

2021

ASW

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The struggles of low-wage workers have increasingly become the focus of public debate, legislative activity, and widespread advocacy. Advocacy can be viewed from the vantage point of claims-making, that is, how individuals and groups define and shape a social problem to influence policy. This paper describes the wage-related claims posted online by 17 experts who testified to a City Council Wage Review Committee in Pittsburgh. Our primary aim was to understand how experts constructed their claims; secondarily, we were interested in the rationales they offered for raising wages. We thematically analyzed the testimonies to identify how they shaped and defined their claims in favor of increasing wages. Experts described the challenges faced by minimum wage workers and their families as well as by the community. They cited economic considerations, social and economic justice concerns, and moral justifications for raising the minimum wage, often combining arguments. Social work advocates are important claims-makers, yet how they “speak truth to power” is not often systematically assessed. Our analysis suggests social work advocates must be prepared to provide multiple arguments and to put a human face to any data presented. Appeals should be made to both the heads and hearts of decision-makers, while keeping social and economic justice arguments front and center.

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Exploitation, Working Poverty, and the Expressive Power of Wages

Cited by 9 publications

References 14 publications

In Cash We Trust?

In Cash We Trust?

CEO Pay and the Argument from Peer Comparison

Examining Experts’ Arguments for Increasing the Minimum Wage

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