Workers And Poverty Commentaries
"A strong minimum wage puts money into the pockets of low-income families who spend it in their local communities, increasing local buying power on which our economy depends... [L]ast year's rise in the minimum wage... generated $5.5 billion in new consumer spending."
Posted July 26, 2010
"I recently purchased a short book titled The Moral Underground in which the author, Professor Lisa Dodson, paints a rather depressing picture of the way some corporations treat their low-income workers."
Posted June 28, 2010
"Last fall, a comprehensive investigation uncovered rampant abuses of low-wage workers in factories, stores, construction sites, offices, warehouses and private homes."
"When we put a face on it, 30 million of those currently uninsured are low-income working individuals, many with children. Will Republicans run on repealing a law that allows low-income children to be insured with pre-existing conditions?"
"In a case involving Pleasanton, an Alameda County judge has sent a critically important message to communities across California: You can't just build commercial development and then force workers especially low-income workers to live elsewhere."
"The unions are going to lose this latest battle over merit pay. They would have you believe it is an assault on public education and an attack on teachers."
"Except the extra hours bumped Fajardo's pay over the income limit for a child-care voucher, which subsidizes her son's care while she's at work. Child care is the single most expensive item in the budgets of low-income mothers."
"But for African Americans... the national unemployment rate has increased from 12.8 percent to 16.5 percent since Obama has taken office... And for black males, who disproportionately suffer from poverty, lack of education, and the absence of blue-collar jobs, the rate is worse..."
"There is, however, a need for lower-income jobs, and such jobs can be created quickly and at a much lower cost. Indeed, the wage portion of a minimum-wage job -- even at $8 an hour, the comparatively high rate in effect in California -- is only $16,640 per year."
"First, the bag tax is a tax increase that comes when every cent counts, especially for seniors, low-income families and others who are struggling to make ends meet. The District shares one of the highest unemployment rates in the metro region."
"The president should also vow to bring the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE, to every low-income neighborhood in America. NFTE works with middle- and high-school teachers to help them teach entrepreneurship."
"Larimer County businesses and nonprofit groups have created a unique and laudable partnership that aims to put homeless people to work."