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President Barack Obama wants workers to make more money. Walmart and other low-wage employers also want to make more money. They could both get what they want if the federal minimum wage goes up.
In the media
Jillian Berman
Fast food workers in over 50 cities across the nation are striking on Thursday in what organizers are touting as the largest ever strike to hit the industry. The workers are demanding $15 an hour and the right to unionize, continuing the calls and momentum of a series of strikes that first started
In the media
Andrea Germanos
In the spring of 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join sanitation workers seeking better pay, fairer treatment and the right to form a union. I was with Dr. King as he stood with workers, all African-American, all fighting years of labor repression and wages
In the media
William Lucy
If I were a top executive in the retail or restaurant industries, or one of their hired guns in Washington, I'd be very nervous right now. Tomorrow will see what may be the first-ever national strike against restaurant and retail chains, with workers expected to walk off the jobs in 35 cities --
Blog
David Callahan
The Cato Institute came out with a big study recently that argues the familiar point that generous welfare payments undermine incentives to work. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities promptly replied with a four-page paper rebutting key aspects of the report.
Blog
David Callahan
You know the drill — we have a dysfunctional political system and a gridlocked Congress. The House is firmly in the grip of a band of Republican maniacs and the Senate, though technically Democratic, requires a virtually impossible filibuster-proof majority to get anything passed. So we should just
In the media
Kathleen Geier
On the eve of a march to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, labor and civil rights activists are calling on President Barack Obama to honor King with an executive order that would raise wages for as many as two million workers. One of the most poignant calls came Wednesday
In the media
Bruce Vail
Yesterday I wrote about why a tight labor market may not return any time soon to raise wages. But here's another scary thought: What if tight labor markets no longer push up wages like was once the case?
Blog
David Callahan
A tight labor market is the great conservative answer to the low-wage jobs crisis. If we can just get the economy booming again, the logic goes, wages will rise along with demand for low-skilled workers. Bill O'Reilly told me that earlier today, when I taped a segment at Fox on the economy. Of
Blog
David Callahan
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is pushing the idea that being poor and living on government benefits in America is actually living high on the hog.
In the media
John Michael Spinelli