In this highly original and personal book, Ruben J. Garcia argues forcefully that we must center the minimum wage as a tool for fighting structural racism. Employing the lessons of critical race theory to show how low minimum wages and underenforcement of workplace laws have always been features of our racially stratified society, Garcia explains why we must follow the leadership of social movements by treating increases in minimum wage levels and enforcement as matters of racial justice. Offering solutions that would benefit all workers, especially the immigrants and people of color most often made victims of wage theft, Critical Wage Theory is essential reading for anyone who seeks a more just future for the working class.

Ruben J. Garcia is Professor of Law and Co-director of the Workplace Law Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is author of Marginal Workers: How Legal Fault Lines Divide Workers and Leave Them without Protection.