Center Projects
Douglas Dority Graduate and Post-Graduate Research Fund for Working America - Low Wage Industries - Sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union
HLSP has been conducting important research on workers and the workplace and training economists who will be similarly concerned. The director of the project, Charles Craypo, was the first HLSP Director. He has been assisted by Adrienne Birecree, David Cormier (formerly at Indiana University, currently at West Virginia University), and Suzanne Konzelmann--all PhD's in economics from Notre Dame--as well as Amy McCormley O'Hara, who is the most recent of the group to receive a graduate degree in economics here. Once Craypo and Cormier concluded their United Way-funded research on the "working poor," the team moved to research other truly "working poor" in the food and other industries. O'Hara's role in this research was crucial, not only for her contributions to the work and the opportunity to provide her with experience, mentoring and data for her doctoral dissertation, but also because it fulfilled one objective of HLSP, which is training economists interested in making "the economy for the people."
Statistical, historical and organizational data and material describe the spread of low-wage jobs in the economy and specific industries and occupations. A team of researchers led by Charles Craypo has sought to explain why the US economy is no longer affording enough workers well-paying jobs and the impact of low wages on the standard of living for workers' families and the larger society. On the basis of this analysis, the team will propose steps workers, unions, business, government, and society in general should take to halt the spread of these low-paying jobs and the deterioration of the quality of work-life in the US. In preparation for the team's work, HLSP conducted a meeting of the membership to offer suggestions about the focus, data sources, and methodology for the project. As in all projects of the Center, the team has gathered and analyzed the data objectively. If any bias has been revealed, it has been a passion for justice, especially for workers--two other objectives of the Higgins Labor Studies Program at Notre Dame.