Breadwinner Family Research Articles

Evaluation of Farmers’ Resilience Against Socioeconomic Consequences of Drought: A Case Study on Sabzevar, Iran

Purpose: Rural economy depends substantially on agricultural activities. As Iran is situated on the belt of drought, there is a serious threat for rural economy, and as a consequence a threat for rural persistence and resilience. The current study aimed at evaluating the farmers’ resilience against social and economic consequences of drought.Methods: It was a survey study including all farmer family breadwinners living in Sabzevar, Iran, among which 301 were selected from 14 villages to be studied. Statistical reliability of the social and economic consequences was 0.754 and 0.876, respectively. Single sample t test was used to evaluate the results of the survey. The study used 57 items and 14 components to assess the consequences of drought.Results: From the economical point of view, the average value for components of production value, production quality, cost of natural resources (losses), production costs, costs of living, and investment were 2.65, 2.08, 21.35, 31.37, 10.22, 5.53, and 2.97, respectively; and from the social point of view, the average value for components of quality of life, poverty, employment, mental stress, reduction of public security, increase of crime, and social damage were 13.12, 9.08, 6.01, 14.97, 8.94, 15.40, and 16.30, respectively.Conclusion: The results obtained by t test showed that the studied villages were not resilient against drought. Two general approaches were finally suggested to cope with drought.

Privatisation Policies Effects on Sudanese Women’s Economic Position

This study examined the privatization policies effects on Sudanese Women’s economic position. In a qualitative analysis the study found that Women’s economic positions were strongly influenced by these redundancies. Both groups of respondents from the bank and the factory have shouldered the impact of privatization policies in a similar way, as the issues emerging were related to the roles undertaken by women at family/household level before redundancy. Major groups in the sample were from the female heads of households (FHH) group, particularly, women bankers. The other group is women sharing equally in the household budget, while sole breadwinner in the big family represents a core group. The FHH group emerged as a feature among professional women in the sample of women bankers; redundancy led these women to impoverishment in some cases, and in others to severe deterioration in their economic conditions. As the government embarked on its decision, based on the male breadwinner notion, in the implementation of privatisation policies, women employed in the public enterprises were the first to go.

Breadwinner Bonus and Caregiver Penalty in Workplace Rewards for Men and Women

Two studies examine whether the workplace motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus are better conceived, respectively, as a caregiver penalty and breadwinner bonus. Participants acting as employers structured offers for married female or male job candidates with children. In Study 1, participants assumed “mother = caregiver” and “father = breadwinner.” These assumptions moderated significantly higher salary offers to fathers and more (explicitly career-dampening) flexible schedules to mothers. Study 2 manipulated family roles (nonparent, parent-unspecified role, parent-breadwinner, and parent-caregiver). Supporting a breadwinner bonus, the female candidate fared best in salary and leadership training offers when labeled a breadwinner (vs. caregiver and unspecified role), equaling a male breadwinner’s offer. A caregiver penalty decreased salary for caregivers of both sexes and leadership training for women (compared to breadwinners) but not men. Thus, the motherhood penalty can become a breadwinner bonus if mothers present themselves as family breadwinners.

Gender and Cultural Identity Work of Unmarried Indian Breadwinner Daughters in South Africa

Although women worldwide are increasingly taking on breadwinner roles, little is known about the experiences of unmarried breadwinner daughters, particularly those in non-Western societies who belong to cultures with rigid gender role prescriptions. This study uses a life-story interview approach to explore the gender and cultural identity work of seven unmarried South African Indian daughters who are the breadwinners in their natal families. The findings of this study illuminate the gender and cultural identity work these women engage in to negotiate the contradictions between cultural prescriptions and their new roles as family breadwinners. In contradiction to the idea that women breadwinners who earn high salaries gain power in their families, the present study found financial control did not result in the kind of power traditionally associated with the breadwinner role. This research also demonstrates the ways in which the women resisted the constrictions of their family roles despite the fact that they were the breadwinners in their families.

Self-employment of men supported by female breadwinners

Purpose This paper aims to look at the multiple embeddedness of male self-employment by focusing on entrepreneurship of men supported by female breadwinners. Design/methodology/approach Following a qualitative research design, the paper presents three case studies drawn from a research project, where 40 narrative interviews were conducted with female and male business starters. Findings The concept of embeddedness that was developed for female business founders can also be applied and specified for business startups of men. Creating and conducting a business or becoming self-employed is for men closely related to and interwoven with gender norms, household and partnership dynamics. Men who are not the family breadwinners benefit from the male connotations of entrepreneurship. Male self-employment, even if of precarious or low pecuniary relevance, allows them to fulfill the norms of masculinity and employment. Research limitations/implications Given that this is a qualitative study only based on three case studies, more research is needed to estimate the frequency of this type of male self-employment. Originality/value The importance of the context for the decision on starting-up and conducting a business is shown for male entrepreneurs. The study demonstrates how on the household level the male entrepreneurship norm is transformed into everyday lives and fits into gender arrangements. In emphasizing the non-economic dimensions of entrepreneurship, the paper opens the discussion about the interconnections between gender and entrepreneurship for men as well.

REGIONAL COOPERATION AND LEGAL PROTECTION TO INDONESIAN WOMEN MIGRANT WORKER

The increasing number of Indonesian women migrant workers (IWMWs) started since 1997, and remain high after the global financial crisis in 2008. The impact for Indonesian economy is quite significant in terms of social and economy. Unemployment rate increased significantly as well as number of people living below poverty line. Social and family relations changed as women forced to work in public sectors to support family economy. Domestic job scarcity turned thousands of Indonesian women as family bread winner by working overseas. The above push factors are combines by increasing demands of IWMWs in the newly industrialized countries in Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia. Geographic and cultural proximity also become reasons both countries are favorite destination to IMWs. As IMWs are mostly uneducated, so they left with no or little choices rather than working as domestic servant or other low income jobs known as 4D’s jobs (dirty, dangerous, difficult, demeaning) under poor working conditions. These marginal conditions were the result of weak bargaining position especially compared to other nationality, such as the Filipinos. Marginality also led to the emergence of the issue related to the violation of human and worker rights. To solve the problems, ASEAN countries need to cooperate and to build a solid legal system to protect IWMWs. The conflicting interests within ASEAN member countries between the receiving (Singapore, Malaysia) and sending (Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand) have prevented the regional organization to produce binding legal products to protect its migrant workers. This research will answer questions: “what are solutions to increase IWMWs bargaining position in regional work force?” Other question would be: “How ASEAN solve regional news related migration issue”.

Dynamics of persistent poverty in Italy at the beginning of the crisis

We propose an analysis of the persistent at risk of poverty (PARP) rate in Italy at the beginning of the Great Recession (2007–2010). Italy represents an interesting case study because it has one of the highest PARP rates in Europe, together with a weak labour market, an inadequate social security system, and a pronounced territorial dualism. EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) longitudinal data are used. Logistic regression is applied to disentangle the relationship between household and main earner characteristics and the likelihood of being persistently poor. According to our results, male employees are more likely to hamper persistent poverty for their households; the opposite holds true for women as family breadwinner. Human capital endowment also shows a relevant role in preventing persistent poverty. The presence of children, instead, makes households more vulnerable. The South disadvantage slightly decreases at the beginning of the crisis. This is due to the worsening economic conditions in the North and Centre, affected to a wider extent by the economic downturn. The Italian welfare system appears ineffective in protecting worse-off households, and policies aimed at protecting employment, supporting women labour force participation, the elderly, and households with children would be needed.

The Right to a Remedy for Enforced Disappearances in India: A Legal Analysis of International and Domestic Law Relating to Victims of Enforced Disappearances

The practice of enforced disappearance has reached a global scale, and India is not immune to this human rights violation. Individuals and communities in several Indian states have been targeted for enforced disappearance and suffered injury as a consequence. Simultaneously, international law continues to develop norms to prevent, prohibit, and redress enforced disappearances. As a sovereign state in a global context, India has assumed some, but not all, of these international legal obligations. In order to assist advocates in developing strategies to promote redress for the victims of enforced disappearance, including women placed in the precarious position of losing their family breadwinners, this paper analyzes the international law applicable to enforced disappearances, examines Indian law in light of these international standards, and points to areas where advocates can use international legal standards to argue for reforms to Indian law and policy.This paper proceeds in eight parts. First, it places enforced disappearances in its historical context. Second, it discusses the development of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a recent treaty that significantly shapes modern international law on enforced disappearances. Third, it examines the international human rights framework for enforced disappearances in India. Fourth, it discusses India’s obligations under international humanitarian law, specialized law that applies during times of armed conflict. Fifth, it reviews the relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and explores the applicability of these bodies of law to enforced disappearances. Sixth, it examines the international right to a remedy and the various forms that remedies may take. Seventh, it analyzes Indian domestic law against the backdrop of India’s international legal obligations. This analysis offers Indian activists guidance in considering the role that international norms may play in developing an advocacy strategy to promote redress for victims of enforced disappearances and torture. Part eight concludes.This Working Paper was prepared by students in the International Human Rights Law Clinic under the supervision of Laurel E. Fletcher. Angana Chatterji, Co-Chair of for the Project on Armed Conflict Resolution and People's Rights (ACRes), Center for Social Sector Leadership, Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and Mallika Kaur, Director of Programs, ACRes provided helpful comments. Clinical Fellow Katrina Natale ’15 gave invaluable editorial assistance. We thank Olivia Layug, Associate Administrator for Berkeley Law’s clinical program for her help with production.

STUDYING THE SOCIAL BARRIERS ON RELUCTANCE OF REMARRIAGE OF WOMEN WHO ARE THE FAMILY BREADWINNER IN TEHRAN

The purpose of this study was analyzing the social barriers on reluctance of remarriage of women who are the family breadwinner in Tehran in 2013. The statistical population of the study is women, who are family breadwinner and are covered by the Relief Committee (RA) in Tehran, the sample size based on Cochran formula (380 persons) that was selected by multistage random sampling. Data were collected by research questionnaire. To analyze the data, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression variables were used. The results showed that; there is a significant relationship between social barriers and reluctance of remarriage of women who are the family breadwinner. A social component reluctance to remarriage, according to Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression variable amount of acceptable error of less than 0.01 (Sig = 0/000) and 0.99 degree of confidence it can be concluded that all hypotheses have been significant. Also, by using linear regression it was found in the study sample, in the highest socio-occupational factors, attitudes and stereotypes, demographic factors such as age, , social factors and demographic factors of education were shown.

‘The domestic handoff’: stay-at-home fathers’ time-use in female breadwinner families

This paper empirically assesses a relatively unexplored topic: the time-use of stay-at-home fathers in female breadwinner families. Using a combination of microdata from the 2003–2013 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS) and in-depth interviews conducted with 30 stay-at-home fathers living in the United States, we critically examine the time-use of male caregivers, particularly during evening and weekend hours. Findings suggest that some stay-at-home fathers and breadwinning mothers shift or swap their domestic responsibilities when their wives return home from their paid jobs, allotting husbands more time to pursue other activities. As a result, some parents continue to ‘do gender’ in more conventional ways during evenings and weekends, even when fathers specialize in caregiving and mothers specialize in breadwinning during the day.

“I’d like to but I can’t”: the implementation of the Italian Act on parental leave

The male breadwinner family model has long been the hegemonic cultural model in Italy. This has defined family members’ relationship with the employment system; the environment considered suitable for bringing up children; and the division of work within the family, with data on the allocation of time showing the persistence of a gendered, unbalanced distribution of work. Within this context, an attempt has been made to respond to the problem of reconciling work and family care. The main relevant policy is Act 53/2000, introduced in 2000. In this article, we outline the essential features of this law, analyse its implementation and identify its strengths and weaknesses. The Italian case raises wider questions about the design of parental leave policies, their impact on parenting practices and the gendering of care. Despite being rather advanced in comparison with other European parental leave schemes, the Italian Act actually fosters a ‘short-leave male breadwinner’ model, where the involvement of fathers in care is still very limited. It also confirms the centrality of women to domestic and care work, as well as their limited presence in the labour market, compared with other European Union countries.

Very Feminine, Yet Unmercifully Intelligent. A Portrait of the Dutch Critic and Translator Elisabeth de Roos (1903-1981)

The Dutch author and translator Elisabeth de Roos has largely been ignored by literary historians. Nevertheless, she played a major role in the literary scene in the Netherlands between 1925 and 1955. She was a very productive and respected essayist, critic, journalist and translator, but in the rearview mirror of literary history her husband Eddy du Perron outshined her. The contemporary gender discourse, in which de Roos herself took part, created a blind spot for the contribution to innovation and poetical conceptualisation of female authors. The infamous journal Forum to which both she and her husband contributed was a mouthpiece for a masculine discourse: being a fellow was the highest goal. After their marriage her husband pursued his writing career, whereas de Roos took care of the household and was the family breadwinner by writing journalistic pieces instead of literary work. After her husband’s death at the start of the Second World War, de Roos started to work as a translator, a profession in which she soon gained a high degree of expertise and professionalism. She wrote lengthy and substantial essays as prefaces to her translations, revealing her thoughtful literary ideas that preferred intellect and lucidity to melodrama and sentimentality and partis pris to half-heartedness. An analysis of her translation of Wuthering Heights suggests she didn’t smoothen the source text to please the target audience, in accordance with her poetics.

Incorporating ‘class’ into work–family arrangements: Insights from and for Three Worlds

In response to feminist critics, Esping-Andersen (1999) added family to the state–market nexus by examining the degree of familialism across regimes. In the absence of the state de-familializing care, however, it is difficult to predict work–family arrangements without reference to the overall level of inequality and a family’s social location within it. Thus, levels of familialism interact with levels of economic inequality. I build on existing categorizations of how two-parent families combine work and care in European countries by adding an explicit consideration of how these patterns vary within countries by education. I utilize hierarchical clustering with data for 16 countries (2004–2010) from the Luxembourg Income Study and the European Social Survey. In some respects, refining country averages by education lends greater support to the tenets of Three Worlds, but also reveals a Southern European pattern distinguished by inequality in work–family arrangements more characteristic of liberal regimes. Findings also illustrate how countries that polarize between dual full-time and male breadwinner families largely polarize by education.

The Afterlife of Little Women by Beverly Lyon Clark (review)

Reviewed by: The Afterlife of Little Women by Beverly Lyon Clark Joel Myerson (bio) Clark, Beverly Lyon, The Afterlife of Little Women. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P, 2014. Those of us who have devoted most of our professional lives to studying Louisa May Alcott (or, “el-em-ay” as we call her) have a detailed knowledge of her varying roles as daughter, nurse, professional author, family breadwinner, loving aunt to her sister Anna's two boys, and surrogate mother to May Alcott's daughter, Lulu. To her contemporaries, she was, wrote the New York Times in 1880, “the most popular and successful literary woman in America” (12), and Little Women sold nearly 600,000 copies by 1910 (45). Today we have a general sense of the ways in which Alcott's Little Women fits into the popular imagination, from making its author a celebrity following the book's publication and through its many reprintings and illustrated editions, the movies of 1933, 1949, and 1994, and even recent morphings of the book's title characters into little werewolves and little vampires. And, of course, there's Orchard House, the “official” Alcott home in Concord, Massachusetts. Like Walden Pond, it is a place of pilgrimage, one where passionate readers of the book can see the “real” house in which the March family lived. Beverly Lyon Clark's The Afterlife of Little Women might well have been titled “The Little Women Industry,” for she recounts not just an afterlife of the book, but a thriving, vibrant continuation of it by commercialism, stage and film productions, reprintings and translations, and continued reader enthusiasm and recent critical attention. The book's four chapters describe and evaluate what Clark sees as four distinct periods in the afterlife of Little Women. The first, from 1868 to 1900, saw Alcott serving as “the children's friend” and being held in high regard by both the general public and the “cultural gatekeepers.” From 1900 to 1930 she began to fall in the estimation of critics but was still popular with the general public, and interest in her continued with the opening of Orchard House in 1912 and a Broadway play of the book. Between 1930 and 1960, her “critical reputation was still at a low point” but the book “continued to be popular”—especially with the release of the first two films mentioned above—“speaking both to audiences struggling during the Depression and to those experiencing postwar prosperity.” Finally, since 1960 there has been a revival of interest in Alcott due to the critical establishment rediscovering her (especially feminist and gender studies), the publication of her gothic thrillers and other neglected works, and the multiple appearances of Little Women and reimaginings of it in popular culture (7). [End Page 116] As Clark makes clear, Little Women is “a mutable text,” one in which the words, illustrations, and packaging change, the “social context in which we encounter the text varies,” and “what we already 'know' about the book before we read it colors what we read” (2). It is also a text that is important in showing how children's literature has been received over the years. It was not the typical moral tale that prevailed when Little Women was published, and it was “perhaps the first American book explicitly directed to girls as an audience, offering four models of girlhood, at a time when children's literature was only starting to undergo gender segmentation” (11). Also, it was published at a time when high- and lowbrow and/or juvenile and adult categories “bled into each other,” but after 1900 “the categories congealed” (35). Still, as Clark reminds us, “children's literature is literature” (148). Each generation clearly creates its own Little Women, from contemporary, post-Civil War audiences who found solace in what they believed was an accurate picture of happier, domestic, peaceful times, to modern feminist studies that see a more complicated, “powerful” work that “captures key cultural conflicts and does not fully resolve them” (147). Clark's survey of these changes also raises such questions as how the definitions of “sentiment” and “sentimental” have changed and why the book has been viewed over time as a domestic...

“After Months of It, You Just Want to Punch Someone in the Face”: Stay-at-Home Fathers and Masculine Identities

bundle up Moira and KateAnd take them to ballet which is greatAnd I sit and read a book in the hallAnd mothers do not talk to me at all.They sit down at their end and I at mineAnd they glance my way from time to timeAnd those little glances really hurt.-- Only Living House Dad in Eau Claire by Garrison KeillorAs depicted in this song by Garrison Keillor, stay-at-home fathers are relatively uncommon despite an increased presence in mainstream TV shows like NBC's Parenthood or ABC's Up All Night and in TV commercials. Current estimates from the U.S. Census show stay-at-home fathers to number around 190,000 (U.S. Census, 2013). This is a substantial increase from 2002 when such dads were close to 100,000 (Fields, 2003). The rise in their numbers is perhaps a reflection of the changing expectations of fathers.Fathers, like mothers, have experienced shifts in their role in the last 40 years. Whereas economic provision and breadwinning has comprised a significant part of in the past, current models of encourage more hands-on involvement (Lamb, 2000; Pleck & Pleck, 1997). Such fathering entails taking responsibility for daily caregiving activities and being engaged and attentive to children's needs. Fathers are more likely to be involved with and responsible for childcare if their wives are employed outside the home (Jacobs & Kelley, 2006) and if the fathers themselves are well-educated and middle- to upper class (Marks & Palkovitz, 2004). This expectation of increased involvement creates tension. More men are reporting conflict between work and family, wishing to spend fewer hours at work and more time at home (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011). Despite this desire, many fathers do not care for their children an equal amount of time as their wives (Shows & Gerstel, 2009) or reduce their paid work hours (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011). This lack of involvement could stem from men's continued identification with the family breadwinner ideal that supports traditional masculinity (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011). Investing many hours in childcare (and therefore not in paid work) contradicts the traditional ideal of fatherhood and tenents of traditional Stay-at-home fathers represent one type of involved father, but research about their experiences is scarce, particularly in the United States. I address the following questions in my exploratory study of 32 stay-at-home fathers from locations across the United States: What are the gender-related challenges these men face because of their family behaviors? How do stay-at-home fathers respond to these challenges? In my study, I demonstrate that stay-at-home fathers challenge hegemonic masculinity when faced with resistance to their caregiving and, in doing so, create a new masculine ideal: evolved masculinity. Research about Stay-at-Home Fathers Much research about stay-at-home fathers has been conducted in other countries (Doucet, 2004, 2006, 2009; Merla, 2008; Wall et. al., 2007). Research on stay-at-home fathers in the United States has examined the psychological aspects of this role (Rochlen, McKelley, Suizzo, & Scaringi, 2008; Rochlen, Suizzo, McKelley, & Scaringi, 2008; Rochlen, McKelley, & Whittaker, 2010), with little attention being given to the sociological aspects (Chesley, 2011). It appears that there are two major factors that facilitate men's transition into the roles of stay-at-home parents. One, families believe one parent should be the full-time primary caregiver for their children (Chesley, 2011; Doucet, 2006; Solomon, 2014; Wall et. al., 2007). Two, men experience either personal job transitions or changes with their wives' jobs (Chesley, 2011; Solomon, 2014). Within the context of a society that expects more hands-on involvement, these two factors push men toward home.Once staying at home, some men experience disapproval from others for not working for pay (Doucet, 2006; Doucet & Merla, 2007) as well as exclusion from playgroups (Merla, 2008). …

An Empirical Alternative to Sidani and Thornberry’s (2009) ‘Current Arab Work Ethic’: Examining the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile in an Arab Context

While the concept of work ethic has been discussed in the Arab context (Sidani and Thornberry in J Bus Eth 91(1):35–49, 2009), the significant conceptual and methodological limitations of the existing work ethic and work value research elucidate the need for a more robust investigation of the multidimensional work ethic construct in the Arab context. Multidimensionality of the work ethic concept has gained considerable attention in recent years as researchers attempt to move away from the religiously labeled Islamic and Protestant work ethic conceptualizations. The current study examines the Arab work ethic through the use of the multidimensional work ethic profile (MWEP) on a sample of future business leaders in the United Arab Emirates. A total of 484 business students completed an Arabic version of the MWEP short form. The results show that centrality of work and hard work are the highest scoring work ethics followed by self-reliance, wasted time, and leisure. There are significant differences in work ethic dimensions across gender and categories of family breadwinner. No significant differences in work ethic dimensions are observed across categories of nationality and work preference groups. The findings are discussed in relation to the unique insight they offer on the nature of work ethic in an Arab context.

Persons with disabilities, cancer screening and related factors

The scope of this article is to describe persons with disabilities (PwD) being subjected to cancer screening and the relationship between some social variables and inequalities in performing these tests. A cross-sectional study of cancer screening among PwD was conducted in 2007 with 333 participants interviewed in residence in 4 cities of São Paulo. Variables in the practice of cancer screening, disabilities, gender, age, income of main family breadwinner, ethnicity, use of health services, assistance required, private health insurance, and coverage by the family health program were studied. Frequencies, χ²-test, trend χ² percentages and the Odds Ratios (OR) were used for data analysis. 44% of PwD attended at least one cancer screening at the appropriate time. Persons with visual disabilities and with hearing disabilities were subjected to more screening examinations than those with mobility disabilities and women were attended in screening exams more than men. Persons between the ages of 21 and 60 reported cancer screening more frequently than those between 80 and 97 years of age. The outcomes indicate that PwD have different attitudes toward cancer screening according to the type of disability, gender, and age, which were the variables that directly influenced cancer screening exams.

The decline of the male breadwinner family model versus the persistence of gendered unpaid work in Spain

Based on a careful review of the theoretical and empirical literature on comparative gender studies, this article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the relationship between women’s labour market participation and the gender-specific division of household work. Its main finding is that there is a persistence of the gendered division of unpaid work despite the erosion of the male breadwinner family model in Spain. The empirical analysis is based on a comparison of family models in Europe as well as trends in the gendered division of family labour. Comparative data from different European statistical sources are analysed descriptively. A more complex statistical analysis is carried out for Spain on the basis of a survey carried out by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS) in 2010. The article provides some interesting empirical evidence that could contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of gender and family change in Spain.

Parental leave benefit in Austria. Stratified take-up in a conservative country

Since 2000, parental leave benefit legislation has shifted from an employment-related benefit to a nearly universal and then to a mixed system of five different benefit rates of income-related and flat-rate models with four different maximum lengths, and with a longer spell if two partners share childcare leave in Austria. The diversification leads to the questions: what determines parents' choice of a certain model, and what are the implications of such a diverse system for social and gender equality? The parents' choice depends on income, employment status, region, and relationship status and thus is restrained. The models further social and gendered stratification, as they still serve a conservative male breadwinner family as well as a modernised dual breadwinner one and, to a lesser degree, an adult worker. In contrast, low-income (single) parents receive more individualised treatment and have to engage in employment sooner than other groups.

Reflections on the Evolution of the Minimum Wage in Australia: Options for the Future

The Australian Federal Minimum Wage has long historical roots going back to the 1907 Harvester Decision which established a ‘fair and reasonable’ wage to meet the needs of a working man and his family. In recent decades there have been significant changes in the role of the wage, many of which build upon earlier development. Effectively these have seen the minimum wage held constant in real terms with the role of support of the family being taken up by strong increases in government transfers for families with children and eclipse of the single breadwinner family. In essence this has transformed the minimum wage to a wage for a single person with the state taking on the support for children. This change has meant that there has been little pressure from the minimum wage on the labour market. This process is now coming to an end. In addition, in line with other research, it is clear that the minimum wage is a relatively ineffective ‘anti-poverty’ tool. The paper canvasses the options for future minimum wage policy including the use of EITC approaches.