Opponents love to claim that raising the minimum wage will drive businesses elsewhere, but the evidence suggests otherwise. A study at the University of California at Berkeley compared hundreds of pairs of adjacent counties in states with differing minimum wage rates and concluded that a higher minimum wage didn’t significantly… Read More»
See for yourself: Year Minimum wage Representative Salary Senator Salary 1988 $3.35 $89,500 $89,500 1989 $3.35 $89,500 $89,500 1990 $3.80 $96,600 $98,400 1991 $4.25 $125,100 $125,100 1992 $4.25 $129,500 $129,500 1993 $4.25 $133,600 $133,600 1994 $4.25 $133,600 $133,600 1995 $4.25 $133,600 $133,600 1996 $4.75 $133,600 $133,600 1997 $5.15 $133,600 $133,600… Read More»
Walmart, the world’s most profitable retailer, is starting to show signs of decline. Last week, the company reported a 21 percent dip in profits over the fourth quarter and a decline in its same-store earnings over that same period, leading a financial analyst to downgrade the company’s stock rating on… Read More»
Like many cities during the Great Recession, Cleveland was facing budget cuts that threatened services and jobs at its public libraries. Instead of accepting layoffs, Cleveland Public Library’s (CPL) management and its union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199, came up with a creative solution of transferring employees… Read More»
Evan Soltas would like you to know he read a book about unions. In his recent Bloomberg View column, Soltas ponders the thesis of Richard Freeman and James Medoff’s seminal book What Do Unions Do? and concludes that unions don’t do much in today’s economy. As Soltas notes, Freeman and… Read More»
Have you ever suspected your school is receiving kickbacks from banks in exchange for promoting their products and services on campus? Turns out, they probably are. Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report expressing concerns over such partnerships between banks and universities, and they’re not alone. In… Read More»
Last year, we publicized the brave protests and strikes the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA) and student guestworkers organized to blow the whistle on retaliation and labor abuse suffered at the hands of McDonald’s restaurants in Pennsylvania. The students, who paid $3,000 to $4,000 for their ‘cultural-exchange’ visas, were shocked to… Read More»
“Two-thirds of Americans think that top corporate executives and CEOs are paid too much, and few Americans think they will ever enter the ranks of the highest paid, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.” Learn more about the 100 highest-paid CEOs.
Last week’s union election at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant – where workers fell 86 votes short of gaining union representation through the UAW – leaves a foul taste in my mouth. My reaction isn’t a matter of sour grapes, as I deeply respect the right of workers to decide if… Read More»
As corporate profits continue to soar, workers’ wages continue to stagnate, creating the widest income inequality gap our country has seen in modern times. So it comes as no surprise that 80 percent of Americans support proposals to raise the minimum wage to $10.10. It should also come as no… Read More»
