The United States is a country where hard work is supposed to be rewarded. If you agree with that, would you be shocked to learn that there are more than 1.6 million homecare workers who are being denied federal minimum wage and overtime protections under current labor laws? And it is almost 2011! Chew on …
Why Are Millions of Workers Excluded From Minimum Wages? Read More »
Talk to a working New Yorker, and the odds are one in four that she belongs to a union. That’s a rate of union membership more than twice as high as the country as a whole, note CUNY professor Ruth Milkman and graduate student Laura Braslow in their new study, “The State of the Unions: …
Why the State of New York’s Unions Should Concern Us All Read More »
Someone sent me an email earlier entitled, “U.S. Senate Declares National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week.” The big week of recognition is slotted to begin September 12th. In the announcement for “Recognition Week,” Senator Ben Nelson says, “Direct support professionals provide an invaluable service to the millions of Americans living with disabilities. I’m proud to …
I recognize you do amazing work, but you’re still not getting minimum wage Read More »
Lawmakers Go After Employers Who Misclassify Workers as Contractors Nearly three years ago, Warren, Ohio, Local 573 Business Manager Mark Catello found out the hard way how rampant is the illegal practice of misclassifying workers as independent contractors to circumvent labor law and cheat on taxes. The local tried organizing cable workers at Baker Communications, …
No doubt following up on Charlie Sullivan’s post on unpaid law student internships, Steven Greenhouse at the New York Times has a story on the more general use of these internships. It’s obviously been an issue for some time, but the bad economy has given employers more incentives to pinch pennies and made interns more …
A recent Time magazine poll found that 71% of Americans who responded want the government to place limits on the executive compensation at firms that received bailout money. Yet accomplishing this task selectively is impossible to do. The government did appoint a czar of executive compensation for these corporations, but he approved a $7-million salary/$3.5-million …
With the calendar turning to 2010, the Associated Press took a look back at the first year of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ tenure, pointing out that “her aggressive moves to boost enforcement and crack down on businesses that violate workplace safety rules have sent employers scrambling to make sure they are following the rules.” In …
Business Lobbyists Yearn For The Days When Elaine Chao Ran The Labor Department Read More »
(Reposted from Open Left) Wage Theft Is Rampant-Estimated at Roughly $2.9 Billion Annually Last week I wrote a diary on a new report about widespread wage theft among low-income workers, “”Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers””. I said that I was working on an article for Random Lengths News. It was published on Thursday, and I’m republishing …
Atlanta, GA, July 24, 2009 – The federal minimum wage increased today, raising wages of the lowest paid workers from $6.55/hour to $7.25/hour and providing a real boost to working families and the economy. Workers who benefit from the increase will spend it in their local communities on much needed items like milk, diapers and …
Today’s increase means a full-time minimum wage earner will receive $28 more a week. This raise is badly needed. It is also categorically insufficient. While our nation’s plunge into recession has forced many working families to tighten their belts, low-wage workers have fared even worse. The decade between 1997 and 2007 was the longest period …
Slowing the Decline in Living Standards for Low Wage Workers is Not Enough Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
