"Decent work" a key element of anti-poverty stretegy

source :blog.clasp.org

This week, the Center for American Progress released its report From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half. CLASP has previously argued for the importance of poverty reduction targets as a way to focus government attention on the needs of low-income individuals and families, and we are excited about this report and the attention it is getting. (Full disclosure: CLASP's own Mark Greenberg was the Executive Director of the Task Force that developed the report and another author, Elisa Minoff, is a former CLASP staffer.)

Given our interest in Opportunity at Work, we particularly want to draw attention to the critical role that improving job quality must play in any effort to reduce poverty. One of the four key strategies highlighted in the report is to "Promote Decent Work." CAP's Task Force says, and we agree: "People should work and work should pay enough to ensure that workers and their families can avoid poverty, meet basic needs, and save for the future."

Of the specific recommendations in the report, two are focused on improving job quality:
The minimum wage should be restored to 50 percent of the average wage among non-supervisory workers, about $8.40 an hour in 2006. During the 1950s and 1960s, the minimum wage was consistently at or near this level; today, it has fallen to just 30 percent of the average wage. Indexing the minimum wage to the average wage insures that all workers share in America's prosperity.
Congress should enact and the President should sign, the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers who wish to be represented by a union to make their employers recognize that union. This legislation would fight back against the erosion of legal protections for workers who want a union. Union representation is one of the major ways that workers can improve the quality of their jobs.