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Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo is building a political career on the strength of the pension reform she spearheaded in 2011, which she has touted as a model for other states to follow. But here’s something you probably don’t know about the new hybrid retirement plan for teachers and other government workers: it actually increases costs for taxpayers even as it cuts benefits for most workers.

If you're part of the 9-to-5 crowd, chances are you wish you had more flexibility. But many low-income workers have the exact opposite problem: their hours vary wildly and they rarely know if they will get a full forty hours of work in a given week. Or even get work at all.

Afraid your bad credit may be holding you back from a great job?

That soon may not be a concern for job-hunting New Yorkers, as the Credit Privacy in Employment Act passed the New York Assembly on June 20. The act will largely ban employers from using credit reports to influence employment decisions. 

June 25th marked the 75th anniversary of the federal minimum wage law in the United States, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed this legislation, his vision was to ensure a “fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” and to “end starvation wages.”

For the past half century, one of the surest paths to well-heeled financial security was becoming a corporate lawyer. Your class background didn't matter all that much, as long as you were smart enough to get into a top law school and could then endure the brutal hours of an associate at a corporate firm.

True, many associates didn't actually make partner at the very top firms, but just logging a few years at a place like Cravath, Swain, and Moore set you up to make partner elsewhere later on. One thing was certain: You wouldn't get suddenly fired as an associate. 

Come April 2014, New Yorkers will finally have the right to get sick. Thanks to a New York City Council vote last night overriding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto, New York will become the largest city in the nation to guarantee paid sick days. It’s an important milestone, even for those of us already fortunate enough to get a paid day off when we fall ill.

In his much-anticipated speech on climate change, President Obama proposed smart, modest policies that would help decrease greenhouse gas emissions through support for renewable energy development and increased energy efficiency measures, prepare the country for the climate change that is already occurring, and lead international climate efforts, including phasing out fossil fuel subsides and stopping funding for new coal plants overseas.

Four years ago, the Center for American Progress published a report by Ruy Teixeira entitled "The Coming End of the Culture Wars." Conflict over social issues -- a defining feature of U.S. politics for four decades -- was winding down, thanks largely to demographic shifts. 

The Millennials, Teixeira said:

Talking points about immigration reform often focus on whether undocumented workers are taking jobs away from Americans who need the work. A story in the Toledo Blade yesterday draws attention to the cost to other American workers of failing to fix the immigration problem.