Media

“I make $1,000 for the store in 30 minutes. But I don’t make $1,000 in a month working there.”

The quote is a paraphrase of a Victoria’s Secret worker. She, like 500 other retail and fast food employees in and around the Chicago Loop, isn’t at work today. They’re all on strike. (Follow #strikefor15 for the latest and photos)

According to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the beginning of April, American employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, compared to 268,000 in February. While it's certainly better than losing the same number of jobs, it does very little to reassure Americans still looking for work. Also, while we've had about 30 months of job growth, it doesn't appear to have improved overall incomes.

The advocacy group Small Business Majority is out this morning with a new survey that bolsters efforts to raise the minimum wage.

President Obama ignited the debate earlier this year when he proposed raising the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, arguing that it would help working families. Congressional Democrats countered with a higher bid, suggesting $10.10. Both proposals would tie the minimum wage to inflation so it keeps up with the cost of living.

More than 77 percent of successful candidates in 2012 and all current statewide office holders were publicly financed, a report released Monday found.

Wall Street has made it far more likely that you will spend at least some of your golden years eating Fancy Feast.

NerdWallet underlies its findings with a report by public policy organization Demos from last summer, which added the further frightening fact that among folks investing in 401(k) plans, a full two-thirds had no idea they were payinganything at all for their 401(k) (which actually makes all of the folks who guessed wrong in NerdWallet's poll look pretty smart by comparison).

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- There's nothing Deidre Duffy would rather do than host a backyard barbecue for a few friends.

"I don't want anything fancy," Duffy, 53, said in an interview next to her black Weber grill. "Give me some charcoal and I'm going to shoot those flames about six feet high, and when they come down -- it's my favorite thing."

In the better-late-than-never category, there's now a more subtle debate among economists about whether it's debt that tamps down economic growth or whether it's the slow growth that pushes up the debt. That's an important question, but it actually hides what may be an even more crucial one. Is growth in GDP really the best way to judge how the economy is doing? What does GDP actually tell us, and what does it leave out?

A longstanding gripe of conservatives is that big government has muscled aside civil society, taking on jobs -- like providing a safety net -- that are better left to charity.