Hoxby Resigns From Living Wage Panel

Professor of Economics Caroline M. Hoxby ’88 has resigned from the Katz Committee effective today, claiming that the committee has favored a pro-living wage agenda.

The Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies (HCECP), popularly dubbed the Katz Committee after its chair, Professor of Economics Lawrence F. Katz, has been charged with examining the University wage and employment policies. The committee is scheduled to release its preliminary data at the ARCO Forum this evening. In a letter to The Crimson, Hoxby questioned whether that data came from a balanced process.

“I believe that the HCECP has neither the process nor the principle to fulfill its duties,” Hoxby wrote.

The resignation of nationally recognized education economist Hoxby will place tonight’s forum under even sharper scrutiny.

“I am ashamed to admit that my university does not currently have an atmosphere that fosters the free exchange of ideas on this topic,” she wrote.

Hoxby declined to be interviewed.

As of last night, Hoxby had not announced her resignation to members of the Katz Committee.

“She’s an integral member of the committee,” Katz said last night. “We hope she’ll continue to provide us with information and valuable insights.”

The much-publicized committee was born last spring out of the three-week-long occupation of Mass. Hall, home of the president’s office. The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) organized the sit-in as part of their push for a “living wage”—a mandatory wage floor of $10.25 per hour for all Harvard employees.

Committee members are scheduled to present a set of recommendations for wage policies to University President Lawrence H. Summers by Dec. 19.

According to Hoxby’s letter, the committee’s membership—selected last spring by former University President Neil L. Rudenstine—fails to represent a balanced set of viewpoints.

Membership includes 11 faculty members, three unionized Harvard employees, two administrators and four students.

Two of the four students, Benjamin L. McKean ’02 and second-year law student Faisal Chaudhry, are PSLM members who occupied Mass. Hall last spring.

McKean declined to comment, and Chaudhry could not be reached for com ment.

According to Hoxby, the committee has heard testimony exclusively from pro-living wage groups, like the living wage campaign, Workers’ Center and union representatives.

“The committee has not heard one presenter who has made a positive case against the living wage, and it stops hearing testimony today,” Hoxby wrote.

Throughout the letter, she refers to fellow committee members as “the ‘principled’ people.”

Katz, who expressed surprise last night at Hoxby’s resignation, maintained that the committee has a broad range of representation.

“The committee is open to all views. We’ve heard from many different viewpoints,” Katz said. “We’ve done a lot of work trying to collect quantitative and qualitative data.”

Katz said the information released this evening will serve as a testament to the breadth of the committee’s research.

But according to Hoxby, the views of undergraduates not actively involved in the PSLM have been all but ignored.

“Anyone who speaks publicly against the Living Wage risks being demonized and the committee has chosen to offer the community no way to express its views except by making a public appearance,” Hoxby wrote.

The Katz committee website does gives students the opportunity to write the committee an e-mail—e-mails that are given little weight, according to Hoxby.

Suggestions to open this evening’s forum to more undergraduate comment were met with “scorn” at last Friday’s Katz Committee meeting, Hoxby wrote.

According to Hoxby, Matthew Milikowsky ’02 had suggested that one less student campaigning for a living wage speak at this evening’s forum.

“None of [the committee members] even voiced sympathy with Matt’s concern that we were not hearing from a cross-section of Harvard students,” Hoxby wrote.

According to Hoxby, her suggestions for an undergraduate or graduate student referendum were similarly dismissed. “One professor argued that Harvard students should not be allowed to express their views because they were such dupes that they could be hoodwinked by any competent pollster into saying what the pollster wanted them to say,” Hoxby wrote.

Milikowsky declined to comment on Friday’s meeting, but did note the value of Hoxby’s contributions.

“I’m very sorry that Professor Hoxby is resigning. I thought her presence was extremely valuable on the committee,” Milikowsky wrote in an e-mail.

Various other members of the committee did not respond to requests for comment.

PSLM member Roona Ray ’02 scoffed at the charge that the committee process favors the living wage viewpoint.

“The idea that the people are too pro-living wage is really ridiculous,” she said.

But she said the campaign for a living wage will go on undeterred.

“We’ve always said that it’s been shown that there’s a community consensus on the living wage,” Ray said. “I just hope that Hoxby’s decision doesn’t detract from the dialogue on campus.”

—Staff writer Daniela J. Lamas can be reached at lamas@fas.harvard.edu.