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The Ethics of the Living Wage: A Review and Research Agenda

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  • Andrea Werner

    (Middlesex University Business School)

  • Ming Lim

    (University of Leicester)

Abstract

To date, business ethicists, corporate social responsibility scholars as well as management theorists have been slow to provide a comprehensive and critical scrutiny of the Living Wage concept. The aim of this article, therefore, is to conceptualize the living wage (LW) in its philosophical as well as practical dimensions in order to open up the ethical implications of its introduction and implementation by companies. We set out the legal, socio-institutional and economic contexts for the debates around the LW and review arguments for, and against, it. Key philosophical arguments from the perspectives of sustainability, capability and externality are invoked and discussed in order to demonstrate the issues and challenges involved for companies, state and civil society actors. Relevant examples from the private sector are examined to demonstrate some of the practical issues involved when the LW is introduced by employers. The article also recommends avenues for a research agenda into the LW for business ethicists, CSR and management researchers in contexts such as the UK, where a voluntary, rather than mandatory, approach to the implementation of the LW is adopted.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Werner & Ming Lim, 2016. "The Ethics of the Living Wage: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 433-447, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:137:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2562-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2562-z
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    2. Orazem, Peter F. & Tran, Thu, 2020. "To Inform or Influence? The Difference between Data Released by Nonprofits and by the Government," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 50(1), March.
    3. Tony Dobbins & Peter Prowse, 2024. "Moral Economy and the Ethics of the Real Living Wage in UK Football Clubs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 195(2), pages 299-314, November.
    4. Stephanie Schrage & Dirk Ulrich Gilbert, 2021. "Addressing Governance Gaps in Global Value Chains: Introducing a Systematic Typology," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 657-672, May.
    5. Mathew Johnson & Aristea Koukiadaki & Damian Grimshaw, 2019. "The Living Wage in the UK: testing the limits of soft regulation?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 25(3), pages 319-333, August.
    6. José António Pereirinha & Elvira Pereira, 2021. "Living Wages in Portugal: in search of dignity in a highly polarized labour market," Working Papers GHES - Office of Economic and Social History 2021/74, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, GHES - Social and Economic History Research Unit, Universidade de Lisboa.
    7. Artur Sikora, 2021. "The minimum wage in Poland and its connection to unemployment: Evaluating causality," Zeszyty Naukowe Małopolskiej Wyższej Szkoły Ekonomicznej w Tarnowie / The Malopolska School of Economics in Tarnow Research Papers Collection, Malopolska School of Economics in Tarnow, vol. 50(2), pages 65-77, June.
    8. Tricia D. Olsen & Harry J. Van Buren, 2024. "Agonistic Respect and the Ethics of Employment Relationships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(2), pages 271-284, August.

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