The average wage needed for someone to afford a market-rate one-bedroom apartment rental in this country is $21.25 per hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. It’s not hard to see the problem here. Both sides of the equation are responsible: The rent is too damn high and the pay is too damn low. …
In an interview, one striking teacher explains how community support is providing energy and optimism on the picket line On March 8, around 3,500 Minneapolis teachers and educational support professionals went out on strike, effectively shutting down a system of 35,000 students. The action, led by Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) Local 59, is the first walkout the city has seen in …
“We Will Win”: For the First Time in 50 Years, Minneapolis Teachers Are Out on Strike Read More »
CHULA VISTA, CALIF.—“Who are we?” Teamsters! ?“What do we want?” Contract! ?“When do we want it?” Now! The sanitation workers of Teamsters Local 542 were still in good voice three weeks into their strike, which began Dec. 17, 2021, even as Republic Services started bringing in nonunion out-of-staters as garbage piled up. Republic had refused the Teamsters’ demands for so long that the city …
Sanitation Workers Win Raise After Going on Strike—With Community Support Read More »
Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA) is raising the alarm about New York City’s ability …
At the core of President Biden’s American Families Plan is an understanding that workers are paid too little in market wages and that government has a responsibility to change that. If President Biden’s American Families Plan becomes law as he proposed it, my grand-niece Harri will finally have a ?“modest yet adequate” standard of living based on a new commitment …
How the Potency of Social Wages Can Beat Back Neoliberalism Read More »
It’s against U.S. labor laws, but that hasn’t stopped employers from withholding more than $65 million in worker wages over the last two decades. Tens of thousands of agricultural workers have been denied wages by their employers—a violation of labor laws—over the past two decades, according to Department of Labor data. The data shows that the employers …
Agricultural Workers Lose Millions of Dollars Each Year to Employer Wage Theft Read More »
As the Covid-19 pandemic has swept through cities across the country, restaurants have been forced to shut down indefinitely—or slashed their workforces and reduced their operations to threadbare delivery and take-out only services. Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, an advocacy group for restaurant workers and other tipped service employees (including Uber and Doordash drivers, …
How to Save the Restaurant Workforce From Being Casualties of The Covid-19 Crisis Read More »
If you’ve been in the workforce since 1979, how much have your wages gone up? If you’re a little younger, how much have the wages for a job like yours gone up in those years? I bet it’s not 157.8%—unless, of course, you’re in the top 1%. By contrast, wages for the bottom 90% grew by 23.9% …
It sure is great to be in the top 1%, this week in the war on workers Read More »
Priorities USA is focusing on Latinos early. The Democratic super PAC is launching a sustained digital effort to woo Latinos in the run up to the 2020 presidential election, according to details of the plan provided to POLITICO. Priorities USA is starting in Florida first and will expand the slate of digital ads to other …
Priorities USA launches Latino persuasion program in Florida Read More »
The 23rd season of the WNBA tips off in a little over a month, and it looks to be a momentous one for the leagues’s athletes. On court, the 12 teams and 144 players will be looking to capitalize on last year’s blockbuster season, which saw a healthy increase in ratings, a new franchise in …
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.
