Critical Wage Theory: Why Wage Justice Is Racial Justice

by Ruben J. Garcia

Overview

In this highly original and personal book, Ruben J. Garcia argues forcefully that we must center the minimum wage as a tool for fighting structural racism. Employing the lessons of critical race theory to show how low minimum wages and underenforcement of workplace laws have always been features of our racially stratified society, Garcia explains why we must follow the leadership of social movements by treating increases in minimum wage levels and enforcement as matters of racial justice. Offering solutions that would benefit all workers, especially the immigrants and people of color most often made victims of wage theft, Critical Wage Theory is essential reading for anyone who seeks a more just future for the working class.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520388031
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	07/09/2024
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ruben J. Garcia is Professor of Law and Co-director of the Workplace Law Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is author of Marginal Workers: How Legal Fault Lines Divide Workers and Leave Them without Protection.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments 
Introduction: The Importance of the Minimum Wage 

1. A Critical Race Theory of Wage Justice 
2. Movements Framing the Minimum Wage as a Matter of Racial Justice 
3. Immigrants, Day Laborers, and Exotic Dancers: At Risk for Wage Theft 
4. Legally Sanctioned Subminimum Wages 
5. Legacies of Race and Slavery: Sweatshops, Prisons, Fields 
6. The Racial Political Economy: Gig Workers, Home Workers, and the State 
7. Improving the Minimum Wage as a Tool for Racial Justice 
8. The Future of the Minimum Wage in the Global Economy 

Notes 
Bibliography 
Index