The Obama administration will soon unveil its new overtime pay rules, which will mean that millions of additional workers will get overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. Many low-wage employers are obviously upset about this—they’ve been using the weak overtime rules to make salaried employees work more than 40 hours …
Low-wage industry tries to fearmonger on overtime pay, fails Read More »
President Barack Obama today said that “a relentless, decades-long trend”—“a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility…has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain: that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead.” The president declared that “making sure the economy works for every working American” is the “defining challenge of our time” …
Obama: ‘Challenge of Our Time’ Is Making Economy Work for Everyone Read More »
Is it patriotic to ship American jobs overseas? President Obama doesn’t think so. He’s right, of course. We live in a globally-connected world, but let’s face it: Home-grown corporations must first focus on their own backyards–a novel concept all to many, it seems. Obama implicitly raised the question yesterday during his Insourcing American Jobs Forum …
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Many in the labor movement objected to President Barack Obama speaking at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Yet there was little protest from AFL-CIO leaders to the president’s speech. For the first time, President Obama ventured over to the Chamber of Commerce to speak. While the speech was full of the usual platitudes of …
New Labor Split? Trumka Refuses to Denounce Obama Chamber of Commerce Speech Read More »
Last month, President Obama wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for “a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” The announcement by Obama to eliminate burdensome regulation was seen as dramatic tilt to the right for …
Obama Admin Blocks Two Workplace Safety Regulations, Pleasing Big Business Read More »
Not the wars. Not greenhouse gasses. Not even the deficit. The issue most important to Americans is jobs. Despite that, jobs failed to make an appearance in the State of the Union address. The talk was all about business. Business was doing better. Business needed taxpayers to help pay for research and innovation. Business will …
Yesterday, President Obama released a statement endorsing the Paycheck Fairness Act and calling on the Senate to pass the legislation. In America today, women make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of American families with children rely on a woman’s wages as a significant portion of their families’ income. Yet, even in 2010, women …
In America, wind turbines echo the almost melodic taunt of a schoolyard victor — Neh-neh-neh-neh-neh-neh: You can’t get me. That’s because American wind turbines are the manifestation of freedom from foreign oil. The more American wind turbines, the fewer barrels of oil America must import to meet its energy needs. And American-built wind turbines help propel the nation out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression by generating good-paying American jobs.
On May 5 and 6, House and Senate committees held back-to-back hearings on legislation to override a June 2009 Supreme Court decision that stripped older workers of vital protections against bias on which they had relied for over 40 years. In this ruling, which Justice Stevens in dissent characterized as “unabashed judicial law-making,” “irresponsible,” and …
Will Congress Restore Equal Opportunity for Older Workers? Read More »
Government workers witnessed a scene yesterday horrifically reminiscent of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack the last time a Democrat occupied the White House. A suicide attack was launched in Austin, Texas by a man who chose to assault government workers as an expression of his rage against government policies. While it is easy to see …
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.
