July 1999
“If you get all the facts, your judgement can be right; if you don’t get all the facts, it can’t be right.”
— Bernard Baruch
Decisions made without proper information risk serious consequences. Nowhere is this more true than in public policy. Nonetheless, city councils across the country are now making decisions on one of the hottest public policy concepts in memory —…
July 1999
Introduction
The concept of a “living wage” is rapidly gaining support in city councils and county governments across the nation. In most areas, the idea behind this movement is that contractors who receive public funds as payment for their services should in turn be required to pay wage rates of at least $7.50 to $14.50 per hour — rates that are far higher than…
February 1999
Major shifts in public policy invariably produce unintended consequences. Nowhere is this more clear than in policies affecting the working poor. In this paper, Professor Daniel Shaviro of New York University demonstrates that America’s working poor are subject to punishing marginal tax rate effects that can sap most — and, in some cases, all — of the higher earnings accompanying their wage increases. Professor Shaviro…
October 1998
In December 1994, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke signed into law one of the nation’s first “living wage” ordinances. It required businesses with city contracts to pay their workers a minimum of $7.70 per hour by 1999, approximately 50% above the current federal minimum wage. Since then, “living wage” campaigns have sprung up around the country.
In October 1996, the Preamble Center for Public Policy (“Preamble”)…
June 1998
The work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform legislation have refocused attention on the need for government programs that help members of economically disadvantaged segments of the population find and keep jobs. In this report, Dr. Tannery examines the effectiveness of one such program, the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC). Based upon a long-term analysis of more than 17,000 Pennsylvania workers, he finds that participation…
May 1998
Based upon an analysis of Labor Department data, Dr. David Macpherson finds that a proposal to hike the Washington minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50 by the year 2000 would cause more than 7,431 workers to lose job opportunities. As a consequence, Washington workers would lose approximately $64 million in annual income. At the same time, minimum wage employers would see their labor costs rise…