446 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Invited Session. Raising Standards for Low-Wage Workers: New Organizing Campaigns, Economic Impacts, and Private Employer Strategies

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

While sociologists have long been interested in growing inequality and changes in the employment contract, these topics have gained increasing attention from politicians, the media, and the public in recent years. A new generation of low-wage worker campaigns has spread across the US and abroad, headed by the fast food workers’ Fight for $15. Unions are developing new approaches to organizing; state and local activists are winning innovative policies in the areas of wage standards, fair scheduling policies, and paid leave; and several major private employers have moved to adopt work-and-family supportive practices related to scheduling and fringe benefits. This panel will present new research on these policies and organizing campaigns.

Sub Unit

• Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility

Session Organizer

• Annette Bernhardt, UC Berkeley

Presider

• Annette Bernhardt, UC Berkeley

Panelists

• Annette Bernhardt, UC Berkeley

• Stephanie Luce, CUNY

• Anna Haley-Lock, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussants

• Heather D Hill, University of Washington

• Sejal Parikh, Working Washington