In a recent report, Americans for Tax Fairness revealed the true costs to U.S. taxpayers of Walmart’s low prices. The company, and specifically the Walton family members who control it, receive an estimated $7.8 billion per year in tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies. The extent of corporate tax breaks in… Read More»
Fifty-four years after the historic lunch counter sit-ins launched the civil rights era, in which four black students sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter and demanded to be served, North Carolina once again captured the nation’s attention with the launch of the Moral Monday movement last year. The… Read More»
Yesterday, the White House released a report highlighting how updating the federal minimum wage to $10.10 and indexing it to inflation is critical in closing the gender wage gap. Women make up 55 percent of all workers who would benefit from Congress enacting such a wage hike. The report comes… Read More»
Paying low wages is not a necessity, it’s a choice. When these guys opened their burger joint, they chose to do better. “We did this because, in our mind, it was the right thing to do. This is too hard a job to pay minimum wage. So far, we haven’t lost… Read More»
On March 13, 2014, the Louisville Metro Council voted 26–0 to pass the “Ban the Box” ordinance in Louisville. The unanimous vote is the culmination of two years of hard, persistent work by many community members, groups, organizations, elected officials and Kentucky Jobs with Justice. Read my email interview with… Read More»
Last week, by a vote of 26-0, the Louisville Metro Council unanimously approved a measure to “ban the box” from job applications for positions with the city. Thanks to the measure, people applying for jobs with the city or its vendors will no longer be required to fill out an application asking if… Read More»
The call for outsourcing or contracting out of government services is often made through an appeal of cost savings to taxpayers. Since the Great Recession, state and local governments facing budget challenges are increasingly shifting the delivery of public services – from school bus drivers to accountants and trash haulers… Read More»
With voters overwhelmingly supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage and midterm elections looming, this is our moment to put pressure on Congress. Tell your representative to sign the discharge petition now and force a vote on the Fair Minimum Wage Act!
As we stand with Walmart associates, restaurant staff and home care workers in their efforts for better job standards, we occasionally receive this dismissive response: “No one is forcing them to stay at their job. They should just quit and find another one!” But can these workers actually just quit… Read More»
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»
