Survival Finance and the Politics of Equal Pay

• In Event: 2451 - Economic Sociology and the Valuation of Work

Abstract

Wage gaps constitute a major component of workplace inequality. While scholars have explored the causes and consequences of differences in pay, very few question the basic presumption that workers are paid differently in the first place. Although very few organizations pay all workers equally, they offer an ideal case to examine how organizations reimagine compensation. Drawing on an organizational ethnography of a cooperatively-managed hotel with a policy of equal pay, this article analyzes how the organization negotiates its commitment to equal pay in the context of low wages and economic uncertainty. I find that the cooperative develops a system of “survival finance” that involves not only payment in money wages, but also access to zero-interest rate credit, and the ability to earn future time off. These findings call for a broader conception of compensation that addresses wages, credit, and time as three ways that workers can benefit from employment. The article concludes by exploring the problems associated with efforts to equalize and diversify compensation and the implications of survival finance for reducing inequality in the workplace.

Author

• Katherine Sobering, University of Texas-Austin