Just Wage Working Group

Established in 2016, the Just Wage Working Group (JWWG) is a research project of the Higgins Labor Program that brings together Notre Dame scholars, staff, and students to pursue the fundamental question of “the just wage” from a variety of disciplinary and practitioner perspectives. The JWWG’s explorations are animated by a foundational question rooted in the Catholic social tradition (CST): On what grounds can any wage be called just or unjust? By foregrounding CST as a lens by which to view the just wage question—alongside and in conversation with historical, sociological, legal, economic, and other normative approaches—the JWWG offers a unique opportunity to foster dialogue not only between academic disciplines but also among professors, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Our initial main focus has been the creation of an online Just Wage Framework & Tool for public use. See also the JWWG roster and list of presentations we’ve made.

History

The Higgins Labor Program was established in 1993 as the Higgins Labor Research Center under the direction of founder Chuck Craypo (1936–2009), professor of economics. Building on the Catholic social tradition’s deep commitments to the dignity of labor and the rights of workers, Higgins beckoned engaged faculty, staff, and students to carry on the legacy of labor priests such as Monsignor John Ryan (1869–1945). Higgins took its name from another noted labor priest, Monsignor George Higgins (1916–1922): labor economist and writer; fierce promoter of unions and workers’ rights; longtime advisor to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on questions of social justice; and worthy recipient of both the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and Notre Dame’s prestigious Laetare Medal for exemplary public service by a Catholic.

Craypo was succeeded as director by fellow labor economist, professor of economics, and noted retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, who ran Higgins from 1997 to 2007 before becoming professor and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School. In 2001, Rev. Mark Fitzgerald, CSC, a professor of labor economics and organizer of the Union-Management Conference (UMC), held annually at Notre Dame for almost fifty years, entrusted his legacy of promoting the dignity of workers to Higgins. In 2008, Higgins was renamed the Higgins Labor Studies Program, an interdisciplinary unit of Notre Dame’s Institute for Social Concerns dedicated to fostering research, teaching, and programming on labor issues. Marty Wolfson, associate professor of economics, served as director of from 2008 until his retirement in 2014. During Wolfson’s tenure, labor historian and history faculty member Dan Graff, Ph.D., served as associate director.

In 2014, Graff, professor of the practice in the Department of History, was named director, and in 2015 he renamed the unit the Higgins Labor Program in order to convey the breadth of research, teaching, and community engagement efforts both currently underway and envisioned for the future. Dedicated to encouraging the Notre Dame community to realize the centrality of the labor question to all human endeavors, Graff has initiated projects like the Labor Café, Lunchtime Labor RAPS, the Higgins Alumni Network, and the Just Wage Working Group (with Clemens Sedmak). He also writes and curates original online content, including the Labor Song of the Month, Work of Art | Art of Work, and the Labor Question Today blog.

Today the Higgins Labor Program proudly carries on the tradition of both labor priests and labor scholars.