Retail work does not have to pay poverty wages. New study compares work in Europe and the U.S. For all the power of market forces, from automation taking over routine tasks to globalization squeezing retailers’ margins, there is nothing inevitable about low-quality retail jobs. Social norms and political institutions can make them better, or worse.
Approximately 1.8 million veterans in payroll jobs across the US would get a raise if Congress raised the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024.
Nearly two-thirds of the veterans who would get the raise are age 40 or older, over 60% have some college experience, and nearly 70% work full time.
The real federal minimum wage peaked back in 1968.
In some of the most brutal authoritarian regimes, labor unions have been the anchor of a broad working-class movement for democracy. Think South Africa, Brazil, South Korea. Our worker movements, political movements and unions must be wary of co-optation. We are not here for one-off gains for some of us. We are here to build broader movements for all of us. The minimum wage is a tool for organizing as much as it is a policy outcome.
Why “no job loss” is the wrong standard for setting the right wage floor.
A gradual increase in California’s minimum hourly wage from $10 to $15 by 2023 would raise wages of 5.6 million workers by an average of 24 percent, according to a brief released today by UC Berkeley.
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Increasingly, workers say, they want and need a union. They also want—and say they are willing to register and to vote for—political candidates who will fight for their needs.
Personal care attendants will see their wages increase to $15 per hour in Massachusetts, while fast food workers in New York State may soon see a large pay increase as well.
Chipotle will offer hourly employees benefits such as sick pay and tuition reimbursements starting July 1. The announcement comes as workers and advocates call for higher wages and benefits so that people in the restaurant industry can make a living without relying on public assistance.
The still fledgling campaign focuses on organizing to raise wages and delays question of union structure. No one seems sure about the shape of a fast-food union. Many formations are possible. Since wages and other employment laws differ by city and state, one could envision local or regional contracts that establish a basic compensation structure, benefits and freedom from arbitrary firing. A more ambitious version would be national in scope: a framework agreement...
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