If Congress doesn't succeeed in gutting SNAP benefits through the Farm Bill, which now proposes sweeping cuts to food stamps, it seems various state legislatures will do whatever they can to get that job done. A few weeks ago, I wrote about North Carolina's proposed background checks for SNAP applicants.
Washington – On Wednesday, May 8 at 9 a.m. EST, low-wage workers from around the country employed in a variety of firms operating under federal contracts, loans, and leases will join Members of Congress, community leaders, and local elected officials to announce the launch of Good Jobs Nation—a new organization of low-wage workers joining together for a living wage and a voice on the job.
NEW YORK, NY – With much attention on labor strikes spreading across the country to protest low pay and poor working conditions in the retail and fast food industries, national public policy center Demos releases a new report today documenting a surprising part of the economy where low wages are prevalent. Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars Are Funding Low-Wage Work and Fueling Inequality reveals th
As we contemplate the possibly bright future of pre-K laid out in Obama’s state of the union address this year, in which the feds work together “with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America,” along comes a sobering glimpse of what public preschool looks like now. It’s not quite as rosy.
Lucila Ramirez, 55, has been cleaning the bathrooms and tables at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station for 21 years. Despite her long record of service, Ramirez says she makes only $8.75 per hour, and receives no benefits or sick days.
“I work in a federal building doing work on behalf of the government and if I was paid a living wage, I wouldn’t have to go looking for a second job in order to support my family,” Ramirez, 55, told The Huffington Post in Spanish via an interpreter.
The vacuous, cheerful expression of the Walmart smiley face has long been associated with the paradoxically dark reality of low-wage work. With the recent fast-food worker walkouts in New York, the golden arches may go down, too, in the annals of class-war symbology.
The average unemployment rate in the first quarter of this year was 7.7 percent. But for African-American workers that rate was 13.6 percent. For Latinos, it was 9.5 percent.
And among those who do have jobs, wages are not rising.
The entire social and fiscal debate ignores this monster of an issue, but it’s only a matter of time. The kids are moving back home when they graduate and can’t find work. Soon, grandma and grandpa are going to be moving in, too. There’s a reckoning ahead that policymakers and the news media haven’t begun to think clearly about — or focus the public on.
As we contemplate the possibly bright future of pre-K laid out in Obama’s state of the union address this year, in which the feds work together “with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America,” along comes a sobering glimpse of what public preschool looks like now. It’s not quite as rosy.
BlackRock, Inc., is the largest asset management company in the world, with nearly $4 trillion under management. It is also a major player in the 401(k) business. So it's worth paying attention to the fact that yesterday, BlackRock's CEO, Larry Fink, gave a speech at NYU in which he declared that the 401(k) system is basically a failure.
For years now, I’ve been asking myself how the federal government justifies charging students nearly 7 percent for loans when banks can get federal funds virtually interest-free (the Fed discount window rate is currently 0.75%).
Here’s one reason why Heritage’s immigration study came out the way it did: one of the co-authors of the study thinks that Hispanics have lower IQs than White Americans.
Murphy suggested two ways out of this trap. One is crowd-sourced fundraising, which is already occurring over the Internet. Murphy stated that his Senate campaign raised $4 million of its $10 million total from donors giving online. That meant he did not have to call wealthy donors to raise 40 percent of his campaign haul.
From The Washington Post, “Federal taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s combined, a new study calculates. The report from the consulting firm Demos, set to be released Wednesday, estimates that taxpayer dollars fund nearly 2 million private-sector jobs that pay $24,000 a year — about $12 an hour — or less.”
Here's an obvious point that often gets forgotten: Who you know makes a big difference in getting a job, and white people are far more likely to have social contacts that lead to employment.
Here's a new one: Two Republican state legislators in Tennessee are pushing legislation which would penalize parents whose children have less than satisfactory grades by reducing their government assistance up to 30%.
