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Waging a Living | Click here to return to homepage

Premiered: August 29, 2006 at 10PM | Check for Rebroadcasts

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In Studio

Perspectives on a Living Wage

Experts speak with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman about poverty, the minimum wage, ten years of welfare reform and the outcomes of living wage campaigns across the country in a special series of P.O.V. podcasts.

More Special Features

Logo of 'big box' store

Program 1: Chicago's Big Box Ordinance
In July 2006, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance which required retailers with gross annual sales of $1 billion to pay their workers $10 an hour with $3 in benefits by 2010. How will this affect the citizens of Chicago? Amy Goodman talks to Chicago aldermen and organizers to find out.

Listen and Read »

Guests:

Toni Foulkes
Community Activist, Chiago ACORN

Joe Moore
Alderman, 49th Ward, Chicago

Shiren Rattigan-Ouni
Field Organizer, Chicago ACORN

Ed Smith
Alderman, 28th Ward, Chicago

Photo of cleaning person buffing an office floor

Program 2: Poverty in New York City
One in five New Yorkers live in poverty. Amy Goodman talks to experts about the lives of these low-income New Yorkers to find out about their wages, their access to health care and education and their struggles to improve their lives. What can New York City government do to improve the lives of these citizens?

Listen and Read »

Guests:

Charles Barron
New York City Council Member

Maureen Lane
Co-director of Welfare Rights Initiative and Drum Major Institute Fellow

Ai-jen Poo
Lead Organizer, Domestic Workers United

Nancy Rankin
Director of Policy Research, Community Service Society of New York

Image of a parade of women during the garment workers' strike in Chicago, Illinois. Some women are carrying signs, and one sign reads: Why are we prohibited from picketing? This parade took place on Dec. 12, 1910, during United Garment Workers of America strike. Cite as: DN-0056264, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society. American Memory, Library of Congress. DN-0056264

Program 3: History of Workers' Movements in U.S.
Legendary historian Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, talks to Amy Goodman about working people's movements from colonial times to the current struggle toward a living wage.

Listen and Read »

Guests:

Howard Zinn
Historian, author of A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present

Photo of LAX Airport, Los Angeles CA

Program 4: Beyond a Living Wage
Living wage campaigns have succeeded in raising wages in various regions all over the country. Amy Goodman takes a national look at the struggle for a living wage, and talks with experts about the future of the living wage movement.

Listen and Read »

Guests:

Madeline Janis-Aparicio
Executive Director, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

Robert Pollin
Author of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy

The Host: Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!. She is co-author of The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them written with her brother David Goodman. Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 300 stations in North America.

More Special Features:
Watching "Waging a Living" | A Conversation with Barbara Ehrenreich | The Working Poor in New York City
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Posted August 10, 2006

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