More than a million workers will be getting paid sick leave soon after New Jersey’s legislature has passed a bill, which Gov. Phil Murphy has said he supports. That makes New Jersey the tenth state to require paid sick leave, and the second to do so in 2018, but New Jersey’s path to this point has …
Today is International Women’s Day, and there is no better time to lift up the role unions play in achieving economic equality for women. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research recently released a brief, titled The Union Advantage for Women, which quantifies the benefits of union membership for working women, and the numbers don’t lie! IWPR estimates that …
Nearly two-thirds of private-sector workers in the U.S. have access to paid sick leave, but as with so many labor and economic statistics, that masks serious inequality: 87 percent of the top 10 percent of earners have paid sick leave, while just 27 percent of the bottom 10 percent do. And what that means is …
When three days sick means losing a month’s grocery budget Read More »
Lawmakers are saying “screw the will of the voters” in response to ballot votes to raise the minimum wage in several places across the country, Josh Eidelson reports: Voters took to the polls in November and approved big hikes in four states’ minimum wages: Washington State, Colorado, Maine and Arizona. But the increases may not actually …
Last year Maine voters approved an increase in the minimum wage. After this jobs and wages surged. So business groups are trying to do something about it. And not just in Maine. Maine’s Job “Surge” Last year voters approved a Maine ballot initiative raising the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2020. The ballot …
Voters Want Higher Minimum Wages. Why? They Grow Jobs Read More »
The presidential election was bad news for progressives, but the dark cloud had a sort of silver lining—ballot measures. At the state level, workers won minimum wage increases in four states and paid sick leave in two. Voters approved an increase to $12 an hour by 2020 in Arizona, Colorado and Maine. Washington voted to raise the minimum …
The Bright Spots for Workers Amid Tuesday’s Disastrous Election Read More »
It’s become a regular feature of elections in recent years: Even as the federal minimum wage stays stuck at $7.25 an hour, with congressional Republicans refusing to raise it, voters resoundingly choose to raise state and local minimum wages. Four states voted for minimum wage increases on Tuesday: Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington. Paid sick …
Voters raise the minimum wage in four states and pass paid sick leave in two Read More »
In 2011, President Obama, speaking in the wake of Occupy Wall Street, called inequality the “defining issue of our time.” Now Jason Furman, chair of the Council on Economic Advisors, argues that Obama “narrowed the inequality gap” more than any president in 50 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office echoes the observation that income inequality …
Inequality Is Still the Defining Issue of Our Time Read More »
The United States of America: land of liberty, bastion of opportunity, the world’s leading economic power. But if you’re a low-wage worker and wake up sick, you’d better clock in on time or you risk losing your wages and even your job. Paid time off for illness, taken for granted in professional sectors and much …
420,000 More Workers in Cook County Will Soon Have Paid Sick Leave Read More »
There’s a lot more going on in this election than the presidential race between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Borne out of the dedication and hard work of activists, ballot initiatives give citizens the opportunity to vote directly on legislation and constitutional amendments at the state and local level, sometimes even …
Minimum Wage Increases On the Ballot In Four States 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.
