1. City of San Jose Living Wage Determination, 1 July 2005. <http://www.sanjoseca.gov/purchasing/lvdeterm.htm>.

This is the most recent living wage law passed for the city of San Jose. The numbers are reconfigured once a year according to inflation and rising costs of living (rent, taxes etc.) The Basic Hourly Rate is $11.61 with no medical benefits; it is $12.86 with benefits. It also outlines that time and a half shall be paid for any work over 40 hours.

2. City of San Jose, California, Bid Line. Resolution NO. 68900. 17 November 1998. <http://www.sanjoseca.gov/purchasing/TextOnly/livgwag1.htm>

This is the living wage policy first passed by the city council. This was the first living wage ordinance in the nation. It was enacted to reduce poverty and taxpayer funded services. The wage applies to any workers hired by the City. If health insurance is provided, the wage is $9.50, if not, it is $10.75

3. Poverty: 2004 Highlights, US Census Bureau. 2004. <http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty04/pov04hi.html>.

These are the highlights from the US Census on poverty. It contains an overview of the most relevant poverty statistics. It is broken down by age and ethinicity. For 2004, 37 million people were in poverty, up from 1.1 million in 2003. Blacks maintain the highest poverty rate at 24.7 percent.

4. "Teamsters, SEIU quit AFL-CIO." CNN. 25 July 2005. <http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/25/news.economy/boycott/?cnn=yes>.

The AFL-CIO lost one third of its membership July 25, 2005 when the Teamsters and the SEIU unanimously voted to leave the AFL-CIO. Losing that amount of membership, means the AFL-CIO will also lose a large amount of its funding. Those that split believe that AFL-CIO was only "throwing money at policitians" and the Teamsters want to try something new. The dissdents total 5 million workers. Although the split may not effect the operations of the union in a huge way, the split signifies the huge decline in union membership in the past 20 years. The labor movement is on the decline, and with this split it does not appear to be changing.

5. Quigley, William P., Ending Poverty as We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage. Philidelphia: Temple University Press. 2003.

This book effectively argues for a living wage. It outlines the problems with the minimum wage, espcially with regards to its stagnant nature. The book emphasizes the near impossibility of living off minimum or low wage work. The nature of minimum wage places millions of Americans in poverty. However, the definition of poverty itself is unacceptable, according to Quigley. His solution to the low wage problem is a constitutional amendment for a living wage. This would raise the minimum wage to a living wage, which, indexed for inflation every year, may start out around $8.50 for workers with no health insurance. He believes this could end poverty as we know it.

6. Pollin, Robert, and Luce, Stephanie. The Living Wage, Building a Fair Economy. New York Press: New York. 1998.

This book takes a very economics-based approach to the idea of a living wage. The book is directed at those who steadfastly hold onto to the prevailing economic theory of our day of neoliberalism. This book attacks the free market arguements against the living wage. Historical examples, and well as concrete studies on living wage ordinances in cities. This book debunks the typical arguements against living wage it being the cause oif increase in inflation and decrease in employment. Emprical evidence of case studies in the historical rises in the minimum wage are used to back up arguements. This is a little unfair to apply to living wage since many living wages are city ordinances, and the federal minimum wages are nationally mandated. This book argues the cost of a living wage should be paid for in a way similar to the government of Switzerland. Expasionary policies should be paid for with very progressive wealth tax.

7. O'Brien-Strain, Maraget & MaCurdy, Thomas. Increasing the Minimum Wage: California's Winners and Losers. Public Policy Institute of California: San Francisco. 2000.

This is a case study on the effects of the 1996 federal minimum wage increase from $4.25 to $5.15 on the state of California. This study was done in lieu of congressional debates to raise the minimum wage further to $6.15. Due to the 1996 law, the additional labor costs and higher prices for goods in the state of California exceeded the extra income families recieve. Ultimately, the minimum wage increase was a detriment to California. However, the book supports a STATE law to increase wages. In a state law, the higher costs are often exported to the rest of the country, while californians have higher earnings. This book ultimately prefers other alternatives to raising wages, such as earned income tax credits.

8. Nordlund, Willis J. The Quest for a Living Wage: The History of the Federal Minimum Wage Program. Greenwood Press: Westport, Connecticut. 1997.

This book is primarily concerned with a historical representation of the mimimum wage. As indicated in the title, the goal of the book was to discover how far the minimum wage has come since its inception. The information most relevant to this paper was the effect of increasing minimum wages on the economy. The book found that teenagers were most hurt by an increase in the minimum wage. Teenagers are expendable, and when employers have increased labor costs, they cut them by cutting hours of teenagers. The book also found that increasing wages does not increase inflation drastically. For ever 10 percent increase in wage, this leads to only one tenth of 1 percent increase in inflation. Ultimately, the minimum wage and labor legislation is leading us in the direction of a living wage, but we are not there yet.