The Living Wage concept -- backed by 70 percent of Providence residents -- will be the subject of a confab at Brown tomorrow:
Seventy percent of Providence residents favor a “living wage” in which companies receiving contracts from the city pay their workers at least $12.30 an hour plus $1.25 an hour for health care benefits, according to a new citywide survey conducted by researchers at Brown University.
The survey was conducted Sept. 29-30, 2007, at Brown University by Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and the John Hazen White Sr. Public Opinion Laboratory, and Marion Orr, the Frederick Lippitt Chair of Public Policy, Political Science, and Urban Studies. It is based on a citywide random sample of 491 Providence residents. Overall, the poll had a margin of error of about plus or minus 5 percentage points.
This survey was undertaken in conjunction with the eighth annual Thomas J. Anton/Frederick Lippitt Urban Affairs Conference on “The Living Wage.” Scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007, this year’s conference examines the economic and political aspects of the living wage and other anti-poverty initiatives with a panel of national experts.
Among the speakers are Paul Sonn of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation, and Oren Levin-Waldman of the Metropolitan College of New York. The conference begins at 4 p.m. in Leung Gallery in Faunce House, located on The College Green.
The findings indicate that 90 percent of residents believe the national minimum wage should be increased from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Sixty-nine percent think the government should increase cash assistance for people who are poor. Eighty-three percent believe the government should expand subsidized daycare for people who are poor. Eighty-two percent think able-bodied recipients on public assistance should be required to work as a condition of the aid. Thirty-four percent believe there should be a lifetime limit of five years on federal benefits for poor people.
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Further information on the survey can be found online at www.InsidePolitics.org
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