The Living Wage: Advancing a Global Movement, Tony Dobbins and Peter Prowse (eds), Routledge, 2022. 216 pp, ISBN 978‐0‐367‐51487‐7, £32,00.

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Cat Spellman
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12267

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12267

BOOK REVIEW

The Living Wage: Advancing a Global

Movement

Tony Dobbins and Peter Prowse (eds), Routledge, 2022. 216 pp, ISBN 978‐

0‐367‐51487‐7, £32,00.

The Living Wage is a comprehensive and timely insight into the debates and complex challenges

around the living wage movement, specifically concerning a real living wage in all parts of the

world. A real living wage can be understood as a rate of pay that often goes above minimum

wages set by government to ensure that all employees are remunerated sufficiently to cover

their living costs. This edited collection addresses some of the fundamental intricacies faced by

the living wage movement, for example, the interaction with an increasingly precarious global

labour market, in‐work poverty, the declining influence of trade unions and discrepancies

between policy and practice among various living wage initiatives in a multitude of contexts.

Contributions made to the book come from a range of international experts in the fields of work

and employment relations and other relevant disciplines, such as, policy and politics. The

approach adopted to debates around the real living wage is broad and holistic making it useful

for scholarly understanding, as well, being a valuable platform for public policy makers. Critical

insight into the living wage is crucial at a time of increasing inequalities and the way they are

interconnected with precarious labour markets. As demonstrated in the contributions made in

the book, for many employees, work alone is no longer enough to provide an appropriate

standard of living.

The opening chapter by Prowse and Dobbins contextualises this edited collection by

outlining the history of living wages and defining the key distinctions between living wages and

minimum wages. Following this, the collection is then divided into two parts, consisting of 15

chapters, along with a concluding chapter. The first part specifically examines the voluntary

real living wage. The contributions explore a range of sectors and the individuals that are

involved and affected, for example, workers, employers and trade unions. The second part of

the book examines an international comparative context, exploring the way selected countries

and regions have developed real living wage policies and the way they can be compared and

contrasted to the UK. The book finishes with a conclusion by Dobbins and Prowse

summarising the key takeaways of the book, such as, the challenges brought about by

neoliberalism, the role of collectivism and trade unions and the significance of the ‘social

contract’for decent work.

In terms of the UK situation, in part 1 chapter 2, Howard draws out the history and

implementation of the Living Wage campaign. He also critically examines some of the parallel

challenges of living wages, for example, those of job insecurity and underemployment, which

have resulted in the need for initiatives like Living Hours to complement strategies around

wages. Excerpts from employees at a UK football club by Prowse & Dobbins, in chapter 3, are

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© 2023 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.