Wage Wars; Universal Basic Income, Minimum Wage or Living Wage?
Wages. It is a term that concerns politicians and people. Just last year, Labor leader Bill Shorten announced that he wanted to ensure that all Australians received a ‘living wage’ as part of his campaign. On the other hand, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang hit the headlines by proposing what many consider a radical idea, a Universal Basic Income (UBI) of $1000 per month to be paid by the government to every citizen. But does all this mean? How is the living wage different to the minimum wage? And, what is a UBI? To shed light on these questions and more we had Honorary Professor from Macquarie University, economic sociologist and Professional Research Fellow from the Global Policy Institute of London, Professor Jocelyn Pixley.