Labor & Economic News Blog

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Honor Working People by Making Work Safer

Honor Working People by Making Work Safer

They build our homes, make the products we buy, and package our online orders for delivery. Working men and women built America, and they keep our economic engine running.

 

Monday, April 27, 2015

Corinthian closing its last schools; 10,000 California students displaced

Corinthian closing its last schools; 10,000 California students displaced

 Like many other large for-profit schools, Corinthian nearly doubled revenue to $1.75 billion from 2007 to 2011, as the Great Recession prompted millions of unemployed workers to seek opportunity in higher education and career training. But the company lacked the cash flow to survive after the U.S. Education Department barred its access to student loans last summer.

 

Friday, April 24, 2015

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is an abomination

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is an abomination

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is an abomination
President Obama had the chance to protect American workers — and failed to do it.

 

Cheaper Robots, Fewer Workers in China

Cheaper Robots, Fewer Workers in China

This is the first episode in a video series that examines how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives.

 

Some Companies Fight Pay Gap By Eliminating Salary Negotiations

Some Companies Fight Pay Gap By Eliminating Salary Negotiations

Women are often less assertive when it comes to negotiating salaries and raises. Some firms are trying to neutralize the disparity by refusing to negotiate salaries. But will that hurt recruitment?

 

2 Years After Garment Factory Collapse, Are Workers Any Safer?

2 Years After Garment Factory Collapse, Are Workers Any Safer?

At the site of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh, families gathered to remember their loved ones and call for better working conditions. Changes have been made but there's a long way to go.

 

LA's Inland Empire sees surge in warehouse jobs, but many are low-pay, temporary

Inland Empire sees surge in warehouse jobs, but many are low-pay, temporary

A 2013 UC Riverside survey of warehouse workers found that about 60% of those employed at Southern California facilities worked for temp agencies, often with no health benefits and no guarantees of hours. The arrangement offers companies the flexibility to staff up or shed labor as demand fluctuates.

 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Unions seek larger role — and members — in marijuana industry

Unions seek larger role — and members — in marijuana industry

 The push to legalize marijuana in California means big money for investors, entrepreneurs and tax collectors. For unions, it could also mean major recruitment.

 

China’s Economy Puts New Pressure on Its Lopsided Job Market

China’s Economy Puts New Pressure on Its Lopsided Job Market

With its uneven pockets of supply and demand and decline in agriculture jobs, China’s huge manufacturing sector is showing new signs of stress.

 

Unpaid Russian Workers Unite in Protest Against Putin

Unpaid Russian Workers Unite in Protest Against Putin

After the annexation of Crimea, workers discontented over unpaid wages and forced vacations have generated a wave of labor actions.

 

Why American Workers Without Much Education Are Being Hammered

Why American Workers Without Much Education Are Being Hammered


Employers’ bargaining power and practices, and the forces of automation and globalization — a double whammy — are sending salaries sinking.

 

Big Mac Test Shows Job Market Is Not Working to Distribute Wealth

Big Mac Test Shows Job Market Is Not Working to Distribute Wealth

If the job market cannot keep hardworking people out of poverty and spread prosperity more broadly, how will those tasks be done?

 

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

LA restaurants push for tips to count toward minimum wage

LA restaurants push for tips to count toward minimum wage

The battle over boosting the minimum wage in Los Angeles has turned to the dollar bills tucked under an empty coffee cup, the spare change dropped into tip jars and the hasty calculations jotted down on meal tabs.

 

How I Live on a Burger King Salary

How I Live on a Burger King Salary

Brimage, a 25-year-old father of two, worked 45 hours a week at a Holbrook Burger King for two years, never earning more than $9 an hour.

 

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Three studies of L.A. minimum wage boosts reach different conclusions



Three studies of L.A. minimum wage boosts reach different conclusions

Three studies of L.A. minimum wage boosts reach different conclusions

Would boosting L.A.'s minimum wage to $13.25 or $15.25 an hour pump up the city's economy — or deflate it?
Economists hired by business and labor groups and the city released competing studies Thursday on what would happen if Los Angeles boosted pay for hundreds of thousands of workers. The new analyses mark the latest step in a pitched debate over how or whether the city should increase the minimum wage as part of a national push to reduce poverty and economic inequality.

 

L.A. County supervisors vote 5-0 to study raising the minimum wage

L.A. County supervisors vote 5-0 to study raising the minimum wage

The supervisors agreed to weigh the impact of not only requiring a higher baseline pay for their roughly 100,000 employees — the largest local government workforce in the United States — but also for county contractors and businesses in those unincorporated areas.


 

McDonald's is giving 90,000 workers raises and vacation time

McDonald's is giving 90,000 workers raises and vacation time

Fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. will raise wages for its workers and plans to provide paid vacation and other benefits for employees at its U.S. restaurants, the company announced Wednesday. The raise, which goes into effect July 1, applies to part-time and full-time employees who work at McDonald’s restaurants owned by the company but not its franchises, which make up nearly 90% of its U.S. stores. The change will affect about 90,000 of the restaurant’s estimated 750,000-person workforce.

 

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