In Los Angeles, California, a poor city in a debt-ridden state, a movement to end poverty is gaining popularity. Joyce Appleby, a UCLA professor and living wage advocate, recently wrote an op-ed article for the L.A. Times about the living wage movement.

The living wage movement is not new. In 1997, the L.A. City Council passed a living wage ordinance to guarantee that all people with jobs can provide for themselves and their families. Since then, several U.S. cities and cities around the world have been joining the fight for living wages.

A living wage is defined as a wage that guarantees a worker and her or his family all that they need to live on: food, housing, healthcare, transportation, utilities, and recreation. Minimum wage is supposed to equal a living wage. However 13 percent of U.S. citizens who are living below the poverty line will be quick to tell you that minimum wage often isn't enough to pay the bills. Appleby writes that despite periodic increases to minimum wage, the purchasing power of the current minimum wage is 17 percent lower than it was in 1968.

In a study of the 1997 L.A. living wage law, experimenters found that the law increased pay of over 10,000 jobs, all with only a 1 percent reduction to the workforce. Most firms studied also decreased employee turnover, which can be expensive.

Appleby writes that living wage's greatest ally is capitalism. Market growth has decreased poverty by more than 300 million people in developing countries in East, Southeast, and Central Asia. And the recent attention given to the disgruntled workers in China will help. Dr. Appleby says, "economic development raises expectations among workers." Cheap labor is becoming a thing of the past, as the plight of the laborer is gaining momentum.

An end to poverty once seemed impossible, but the progress made over the last few years is encouraging. Dr. Appleby, at least, concludes that the end of poverty may actually be in sight.

A 1989 poster celebrating Congress of South African Trade Unions' Living Wage Campaign and May Day. Photo: Gardens Media Group/CAP (flickr)

Today, IRIN, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, brings attention to power shortages in South Africa which have halted production and created job losses for miners. The slow down of one of South Africa's most important industries may have a serious impact on government goals of job creation and poverty alleviation.

Any job losses in the mining sector could have an impact on the South African Development Community (SADC), warned Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). South African mines employ 460,000 workers - 40 percent of them from neighbouring countries - and shutting down operations had already affected the incomes of casual workers...

South Africa's economy needs to grow at least 6 percent annually to keep unemployment from rising above the official estimate of 25 percent, although independent economists have put the joblessness rate at nearer to 40 percent.

According to Schussler, economic growth could slow from over five percent in 2007 to three percent in 2008 as a result of the outages and anticipated slower growth in the global economy. The South African economy is the most influential in the region, and any contraction could have a ripple effect on neighbouring countries.