Portside

It’s long past time to fix this failure in our economy and in our politics.

As wild as a 4-day workweek might sound, UAW leader Shawn Fain is pushing a concept that has captured the imagination of workers all over the world, thanks to widely publicized trials. Microsoft ran a month-long pilot in Japan with positive results.

The New York State Department of Labor still needs to recover 63% of stolen wages during a five-year period analyzed by ProPublica and Documented. The problem? An understaffed agency with poor tools for recovering wages and enforcing judgments.

Corrupt employers try scams to shortchange, intimidate or retaliate against employees but a restaurant’s attempt to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace “sins” may be among the most shameless.

Supporters say a shortened week would push businesses to hire more people, increase labor market participation, and create healthier competition in the workplace that empowers workers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

By excluding jobs held by black and brown workers from basic worker protections, the Fair Labor Standards Act, adopted decade ago during the New Deal, injected institutional racism into a federal wage and hour law.

The future of work means fewer hours spent working.

“Wealth work” is one of America’s fastest-growing industries. It includes full-time retail and service jobs at nail salons and spas, as well as that nebulous network of people contracted through through driving, delivery and other online services.

Progressive Senators who have already criticized the administration on other economic issues — Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tom Harkin — wrote a letter last spring to Obama, applauding his decision to revisit overtime pay. But in their letter, the liberal Senators also set forth their desired threshold: Around $54,000 per year, rather than $42,000, the amount the Obama administration is supposedly eying.

Historical discrimination, demographics, and public funding have left home care workers at the very bottom of the American work hierarchy. The wages these workers earn are painfully low: the median salary for a personal care aide is $19,910 annually, or $9.57 an hour; a home health aide earns $20,820 or $10.01 per hour. On the Bureau of Labor Statistic's list of 30 fastest-growing jobs, personal and home care aides are the worst paid.