"The existence of a low wage sector is nothing new, nor are efforts to resist the conditions experienced by people whose incomes typically fall below the poverty line. In recent decades, under the rubric of neoliberalism structural and political factors in many western states have combined to expand the low wage sector. In policy terms this is represented by intensified efforts to flexibilize the labour market and to impose conditionality for the receipt of social benefits. Various social and political forces have pushed for policies to address issues of low wages and poverty. The paper recognizes the intersection of social and labour market policies but focuses on the latter. It opens with an historical overview of efforts to address low wages that touches on sectoral councils in the U.K, and the Awards system in Australia. It then moves on to analyze contemporary minimum wage policy and campaigns for a living wage. We then turn to the discourses/argumentation associated with these initiatives, and those employed by opposition to them. Our goal is to understand and evaluate the arguments advanced but move beyond discourse to identify the conditions in which particular means of addressing low wages can succeed."

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