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President Obama on the phone waving surrounded by staffers
For the back story of why newly announced protections for home care workers is so needed, we have to go back 75 years.
Blog
David Callahan
Earlier today I praised the Obama administration's move to extend labor protections, including overtime and the minimum wage, to some two million home aides. Now for the reality check: This step will surely increase the cost of caring for the aged and disabled at a time when millions of Baby Boomers
Blog
David Callahan
Weill Cornell Medical College last week accepted $100 million from the Weill Family Foundation to help "translate research breakthroughs into innovative treatments and therapies for patients.” More precisely: A college dean who also served on the board of a big-pharma firm while it defrauded
Blog
Jack Grauer
Today, the Obama administration extended minimum wage and labor protections to nearly two million home care workers, ensuring that these employees will now be covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Last year, Demos submitted a public comment to the Department of Labor urging this regulation.
Press release/statement
There’s a line in Johnny Paycheck’s 1977 hit song that goes “I’d give the shirt right off my back, if I had the guts to say ... Take this job and shove it, I ain’t working here no more.” In the past year, fast-food, retail, and warehouse workers have shown they do have the guts—but instead of
In the media
Nicole Aschoff
Over the past two decades, both political parties have basically embraced a low-wage economy in which paltry wages for millions of Americans is offset by favorable tax treatment: both through the EITC and other credits, and low or zero tax rates for earners at the bottom of the economic ladder. Toss
Blog
David Callahan
Like so many young Americans, Derek Wetherell is stuck. At 23 years old, he has a job, but not a career, and little prospect for advancement. He has tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, but no college degree. He says he is more likely to move back in with his parents than to buy a home, and
In the media
Ben Casselman
Marcus Walker
Occupy Wall Street was born exactly two years ago today, and even as that movement reached its zenith later in the fall of 2011, it was easy to dismiss the activists who took over financial centers around the nation. Their policy agenda was amorphous and their organizational processes seemed
Blog
David Callahan
Progressive groups are warning that the Supreme Court may be on the verge of allowing federal candidates to collect multi-million dollar checks from donors. Speaking to reporters on Monday, attorneys and representatives from the campaign finance watchdog groups Democracy, Public Citizen and Demos
In the media
Byron Tau
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View of high rise buildings from the street
Five years after the fall of Lehman Brothers and the worst financial crisis since 1929, one thing seems certain: another meltdown of the financial system will eventually happen. Why? Because we still haven't fixed many of the problems that led to the last crisis.
Blog
David Callahan
Wallace C. Turbeville