"The Full Fruits of Our Labor": The Rebirth of the Living Wage Movement

A detailed report by the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston in 1998 revealed that many workers were earning hourly wages far below a "living wage." Employing what they called the "self-sufficiency standard," the activists succeeded in pushing the Boston City Council to pass a living wage ordinance. What many living wage activists did not realize is that this was not the first time the Women's Educational and Industrial Union had been involved in a campaign for living wages. In 1911, the organization released another report, profiling the incomes and expenditures of 450 women workers in Boston. The following year, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a minimum wage law. This is just one example of the many links between the current campaign for living wages and struggles from the past. Labor historians and today's activists have much to learn from one another in this fight for living wages that has been a mainstay of the U.S. labor movement.