cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3624236
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3624234
A family wage is a wage that is sufficient to raise a family. This contrasts with a living wage, which is generally taken to mean a wage sufficient for a single individual to live on, but not necessarily sufficient to also support a family. As a stronger form of living wage, a family wage is likewise advocated by proponents of social justice. Family wage campaign was aiming to maintain the traditional family structure, as a concept connecting economics and family structure it is one of the examples of how economic structure of family, which is a subject of the field family economics, affects overall economy beyond the family.
The term “family wage jobs” has occasional contemporary use in American political rhetoric and is most associated with Catholic intellectuals, in the Catholic social teaching tradition
The debate about “living wages” vs. minimum wages ignores structuring jobs for the needs of the family and (traditionally male) breadwinners
Yeah I often see people discussing minimum wages and living wages, this was a different concept I stumbled upon for people to think about, which makes sense for society to consider because if workers have families they’re not simply trying to earn a “living wage” (enough for them) but also enough for kids and/or spouse, etc.
family wage: enough to support a whole family by one breadwinner (traditionally thought of as an individual male; even with dual breadwinners you could still have an idea of how much a “family wage” would be that pays for the costs of the whole family)
living wage: enough to support an individual
minimum legal wage: legally allowed minimum to pay per hour (I don’t know how common it has been for a minimum wage to be enough to raise a family)