Sixfold Social Return from Janitors' Wages

The UK-based New Economics Foundation (nef) has released a trenchant report, "A Bit Rich," that calculates the Social Return on Investment for three low-wage and three high-wage jobs. They find that for every £1 paid to a hospital cleaner, £10 in social and environmental returns are generated, via reduced infection and "improved health outcomes." Childcare providers generate a similar return by freeing up parents to work; waste recyclers create £12 in social and environmental value. The dollar equivalent is $6-7 for every $1 in wages paid.

In sharp contrast, bankers lose $4 for every dollar paid; our favorite Mad Men destroy almost $8 in social value from triggering excessive consumption.

This report is not for the conservative minded. It questions fundamental societal values of what types of labor we reward, who we consider hard working and deserving of high pay, whether the private sector is more efficient and fair than the public sector, and whether the resulting inequality is a natural and necessary by-product. In advocates for modernizing economic theory concerning externalities (pollution is the classic example) to call for recognition of often abstract social and economic value generated by different types of work.

The New Economics Foundation concludes with policy recommendations to reduce social, environmental, and economic inequality including progressive taxation schemes, green economic policy, universal childcare, and family friendly policies, regulation of maximum as well as minimum wages, cooperative ownership models, and incorporating social and economic costs into wage calculations.

Although their policies are aimed at rectifying UK inequality, they're prescient and highly relevant to the vast inequities we face here in the US. In the US we've traditionally marginalized those fighting for fairer, healthier wages to the sidelines as troublesome "special interest groups" not representing our universal interests -- unions, working women, immigrants. Legislation promoting equitable pay and benefits policies creeps along and stalls, and is incremental at best. One of nef's key recommendations is to end the "policy silence on high pay." As anti-poverty advocates, we must unite our voices in calling for an end to the wasteful and unfair inequalities documented in this report.

(Photo by Robert S. Donovan)