In this highly original and personal book, Ruben J. Garcia argues forcefully that we must center the minimum wage as a tool for fighting structural racism. Employing the lessons of critical race theory to show how low minimum wages and underenforcement of workplace laws have always been features of our racially stratified society, Garcia explains why we must follow the leadership of social movements by treating increases in minimum wage levels and enforcement as matters of racial justice. Offering solutions that would benefit all workers, especially the immigrants and people of color most often made victims of wage theft, Critical Wage Theory is essential reading for anyone who seeks a more just future for the working class.

About the Author

Ruben J. Garcia is Professor of Law and Co-director of the Workplace Law Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is author of Marginal Workers: How Legal Fault Lines Divide Workers and Leave Them without Protection.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Importance of the Minimum Wage

1. A Critical Race Theory of Wage Justice
2. Movements Framing the Minimum Wage as a Matter of Racial Justice
3. Immigrants, Day Laborers, and Exotic Dancers: At Risk for Wage Theft
4. Legally Sanctioned Subminimum Wages
5. Legacies of Race and Slavery: Sweatshops, Prisons, Fields
6. The Racial Political Economy: Gig Workers, Home Workers, and the State
7. Improving the Minimum Wage as a Tool for Racial Justice
8. The Future of the Minimum Wage in the Global Economy

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"An ambitious, provocative, and compelling account that centers race in the analysis of wage justice. This is a must-read for anyone who studies low-wage work in the US and those interested in theorizing transformational regulatory regimes that could produce living wages for all workers."—Kate Griffith, Jean McKelvey–Alice Grant Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Diversity, and Faculty Development, ILR School, Cornell University

"Ruben Garcia is a pathfinder whose clear and convincing language confronts some of the most pressing controversies of our time. His lived experience as a labor attorney, in combination with his expertise as a seasoned scholar of labor law, creates a compelling original argument. Critical Wage Theory is accessible far beyond the academy, and Garcia's keen analysis could hardly be more timely."—Aviam Soifer, former Dean and Professor of Law, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai'i

"An innovative exploration of class and race in the context of minimum-wage rules. Garcia applies persuasive theoretical approaches to a variety of real-world battles over legal rights. This is an important contribution to the fields of law, politics, and critical studies."—Joseph E. Slater, Distinguished University Professor and Eugene N. Balk Professor of Law and Values, University of Toledo College of Law

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews