Since 2000, the number of living wage ordinances has steadily increased throughout the country. While most of the current research has focused on the beneficial outcomes of living wages, little has been published on their administrative practices. To address this shortcoming, this study focused on the identification of key administrative and political factors involved impacting the implementation of living wage ordinances in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The study utilized a triangulation of interviews, surveys, and direct observation. The author conducted interviews of administrators and members of the living wage oversight boards in both counties and observed the monthly meetings held by each county’s oversight board from January 2006 to June 2007. These findings were buttressed with a national survey of senior staff in other living wage communities. The study utilized descriptive statistics, Chi Square, Cronbach’s Alpha, and Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient (Spearman’s rho). Interviews indicated that administrators in Dade and Broward are seriously under-staffed and budgeted. Ambiguities in the enabling ordinances have lead to loopholes that undermine implementation and accountability for participating contractors. Survey results showed that policy ambiguity, organizational politics, and a lack of organizational capacity were significant negative factors in the implementation process while an organizational culture emphasizing consistent enforcement was a positive factor. Without the proper inputs, an organization hinders itself from meeting its outputs and outcomes. This study finds that Broward and Miami-Dade Counties do not provide the necessary administrative support to implement a living wage effectively – in stark contrast to the high hopes and strong political support behind their passage. For a living wage to succeed, it first needs an organizational culture committed to providing the necessary resources for implementation as well as transparent, consistent accountability mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature focused on the increased utilization of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by low-income workers attempting to become food secure. Poverty measurement will be discussed for its importance to accurately identify individuals and families who are still excluded of social services and programs due to a faulty measurement of poverty. Furthermore, this paper will identify how the limitations of the current minimum wage system in the United States contributes to food insecurity within the population of low-income workers. A concise history of the creation of the SNAP program and the current minimum wage system will be provided. Identifying the increased utilization of the SNAP program, how this intersects with the current minimum wage system and increased food insecurity, will help identify potential areas for advocacy within social work practice and potential areas for policy change

This study of automatic wage adjustments to changes in price levels will do the following: (1) give the historical background of cost-of-living wage adjustments to changes in price levels; (2) show whether there is a need for adjusting wages to changes in price levels; (3) show whether or not industry can afford to pay wages that are automatically adjusted to changes in price levels; (4) list some of the contracts between labor and capital that contain an example of the automatic cost-of-living wage adjustment; (5) summarize the problem and draw conclusions from the study as a whole.

The dissertation deals with the issue of poverty in the Czech Republic, especially with its economic, political and historical context of development, theory and practice of its measurement and possible international comparability, both in scale and in terms of the effectiveness of social transfers system. The effectiveness is understood as reducing the extent of poverty represented by the at-risk-of-poverty rate used e.g. in Europe 2020 Strategy. The aim of the dissertation is to analyze the problem of income poverty and its development in the Czech Republic with a special focus on the effectiveness of the social transfers system in relation to reducing the extent of income poverty. The effectiveness is analyzed separately in case of social transfers as a whole, and in case of social transfers excluding old-age and survivors' pensions. The emphasis has been placed on international comparisons and on the poorest layers of the population represented by the study of the lower poverty lines than the standard one. Based on empirical analysis of survey data from the EU-SILC, it was disproved that the effectiveness of the Czech social transfers system was above average compared to the countries of the same welfare state model, the CEE region and the EU during the years 2005-2013. The Czech pension system plays a crucial role in the level of effectiveness of the social transfers system. The good position of the Czech Republic among the all three studied groups of countries in terms of effectiveness is maintained mainly thanks to its pension system.The current low level of poverty rate was achieved mainly thanks to the pre-crisis measures, respectively due to the specific timing of these measures package. The contribution of this dissertation consists in complex and systematized view of the income poverty in the Czech Republic, accompanied by the analysis of the effectiveness of the social transfer system. This analysis, owing to the time series (2005-2013), applied methods (methods of the European Commission vs. IZA method) and scope of the international comparison (welfare state model, CEE region and EU), has no similarity in the Czech scientific literature so far.

Long-term unemployment brings negative consequences for the state and individuals. Besides the financial impacts on the state (lower incomes, expenditures for social transfers), for the long-term unemployed people from the social and psychological perspective this is a reduction in living standards, loss of social status, skills and abilities decline, decrease of social contacts, etc. Unemployed persons have not got income from their own economic aktivity, and that is why they are provided with social benefits in material need in the frame of the system of social protection.Their long-term receiving, however, often leads to the trap of poverty and welfare dependency. Employment agencies strive for return of these people back to the labour market through thein instruments of active employment policy. This thesis is focused on public service, which was introduced to the system of poverty relief in 2009 as the motivation and penalty measures to increase the activity of long-term unemployed. The theoretical starting points of this study are findings on poverty, social exclusion, living wage. The empirical section is dedicated to the analysis of public service as an instrument of the social policy, in particular it is then focused on its activation component. The research design of the work is a case...

<p>This study examines the extent to which transit may be able to assist with the upward mobility of low-income groups, specifically those making less than a living wage. Previous studies relating to job accessibility have examined the feasibility of reaching jobs using various modes of transportation, and some have factored educational requirements into the attainability of those jobs. However, no studies thus far have attempted to determine transit accessibility to jobs that can facilitate and enable upward mobility for low-income households. Employment data relevant to the labor force of Marion County, Indiana, is used to determine the earnings (mainly wages or salaries) associated with occupations, and which occupations require no more than a high school education. Those occupations are then paired with the various industries they are found in, and the earnings belonging to the industry’s highest-earning occupation is associated with that industry. The median household incomes of low-income Census block groups (CBGs) are then compared to the earnings of each transit-accessible industry to evaluate whether those earnings are large enough to induce upward mobility for those living in the CBGs. Bus routes and bus stops for the local transit system (IndyGo) along with workplace locations are mapped in ArcGIS to assess the low-income population’s accessibility to workplaces belonging to a select group of industries. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bus routes that serve both downtown Indianapolis and low-income CBGs were found to provide people living in those CBGs with access to some of the most lucrative jobs, particularly those found in the <i>Finance and Insurance</i> industries. Over half of Indianapolis’ transit-accessible industries have earnings amounts large enough to induce upward mobility for those living in all the low-income CBGs; this corresponds to 6,748 unique workplaces. Findings from this study suggest that low-income people would benefit from having access to transit routes that serve downtowns and other areas with high concentrations of white-collar jobs. Low-income Indianapolis residents informed of this study’s results may be motivated to explore the possibilities for better-paying jobs accessible to them by transit. Furthermore, methods used in this study can help in ranking different transit routes for accessibility to workplaces conducive to upward mobility. The rankings can be updated periodically to assist in addressing equity goals for transit planning.</p>