Wage for Ind. servers among the lowest in the US, By Dana Hunsinger Benbow, April 8, 2011, Indianapolis Star: “Customers ask for ice water with lemon. And then more lemons. Oh, yes. Some sugar, too, please. They ask to split a meal - half the sandwich with mayonnaise and tomato, the other with mustard and onion. Make that a Caesar salad on one plate and fries, no salt, on the other. When it’s all said and done and the meal is over, waiter Thomas Ievoli said he’s at his tipping point. Unfortunately, his customers aren’t. ‘People are expecting more service and paying less for it,’ said Ievoli, a server at Old Pointe Tavern and a bartender at Lockerbie Pub. ‘They do all kinds of special requests. They will sit there forever. They special-order and then tip you 10 percent - if not less.’ In the economic downturn, lower tips have made it tough for waiters and bartenders to survive. In Indiana, it’s especially tough because it, along with 17 other states, has the lowest minimum wage for people who depend on tips in the nation: the federal standard of $2.13 an hour. While the federal minimum wage has steadily increased over the years to $7.25 an hour, the $2.13 mark for tipped employees has remained in place since 1991…”

Many low-wage jobs seen as failing to meet basic needs, By Motoko Rich, March 31, 2011, New York Times: “Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security. The Labor Department will release its monthly snapshot of the job market on Friday, and economists expect it to show that the nation’s employers added about 190,000 jobs in March. With an unemployment rate that has been stubbornly stuck near 9 percent, those workers could be considered lucky. But many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care. A separate report being released Friday tries to go beyond traditional measurements like the poverty line and minimum wage to show what people need to earn to achieve a basic standard of living…”

• Texas leads nation in minimum wage workers, By Steve Clark, March 28, 2011, Brownsville Herald: “If there’s anything faintly resembling good news in a just-released report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s that Texas’ share of hourly workers at or below minimum wage among U.S. states fell from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 9.5 percent in 2010. This just barely qualifies as a positive, however, since the number of Texas hourly workers at or below the prevailing federal minimum wage still increased by 76,000 over 2009. At 9.5 percent, Texas ties with Mississippi in terms of U.S. states with the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. Texas and Mississippi take top honors, therefore, in terms of having the lowest paid workers among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. To be fair, low wages are partly a function of lower cost of living. In Cameron County and the Rio Grande Valley, low wages and low cost of living - by some measures - go hand in hand, and are both a blessing and a curse in the view of economic development officials…”
• Lone Star State ties Mississippi in low pay count, By Patrick Danner, March 28, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Texas tied with Mississippi for states having the highest percentage of hourly paid workers earning the minimum wage or less. Some 550,000 Texans, or 9.5 percent of hourly paid workers, made the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or less last year. That’s up 76,000 workers, or 16 percent, from 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported…”

States weigh cuts to earned income tax credit for working poor, By Pamela M. Prah, March 28, 2011, Stateline.org: “Rohnalda Hollon, a single mother of three in Beaverton, Michigan, and an Iraq war veteran, worries that state budget cutbacks will wipe out the refund she gets from a program aimed at helping the working poor. ‘The $400 from the Earned Income Tax Credit could mean the difference between paying my Consumer’s Energy bill or not,’ says Hollon, who works full-time for the Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors program, and has been put forward as one of the faces of an advocacy campaign called Save Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit. Hollan is typical of the recipients of the Michigan credit, which returns an average of $432 to families, most with children. Governor Rick Snyder wants to eliminate the program, along with a slew of other tax credits, in a bid to make the state tax system ’simple, fair and efficient.’ Eliminating the credits also would help close the state’s $1.8 billion budget deficit. Just scrapping the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, would save the state at least $340 million a year…”

• Walker’s budget slashes tax credits that aid poor, By Dee J. Hall, March 6, 2011, Wisconsin State Journal: “Low-income taxpayers in Wisconsin would lose hundreds of dollars in tax credits a year under Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget - at the same time the governor wants tax cuts for businesses and investors to boost jobs. Walker proposes cutting about $16 million a year from the program, which in 2009 paid 273,939 low-income Wisconsin residents a total of $133 million. Under Walker’s proposed biennial budget, a single mother with two children earning about minimum wage - $15,000 a year - would lose $302 of her $704 Earned Income Tax Credit next year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. A two-parent household with two children earning $30,000 a year would see its tax credit cut by $194 to $258, the alliance said…”
• Bill seeks to cut EITC percentage, By Matthew Clark, March 11, 2011, Pittsburg Morning Sun: “A bill spearheaded by a Kansas House committee has been proposed to decrease Kansas’ Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from its current 18 percent to 5 percent over the next four years. State Rep. Terry Calloway, a Pittsburg Republican, introduced the measure to the House Taxation Committee and it has already drawn sharp attacks from Democrats and other opponents who call the measure ‘counter-productive.’ The bill will generate an additional $56.3 million to the state’s General Fund initially in fiscal year 2012 and increase to $64.5 million by fiscal year 2016. It will reduce the amount of the tax credit - which is meant to benefit low-income individuals and families and also takes out a provision making the tax credit refundable. That means, if a family’s tax credit was higher than their tax liability, they would have the liability paid off, but would not get a check for the difference…”

Tax credit helps poor, but many unaware, By Rita Price, February 25, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “As a single mother who works and goes to college, Brandi Hardgrow adheres to a budget that leaves little room for wiggle - or for unexpected car repairs. But she gets by, and a big reason is her tax savvy. Hardgrow, 29, files for the Earned Income Tax Credit and then carefully manages a hefty refund - sometimes more than $2,500 - that keeps her household humming when her job as a Columbus-schools latchkey worker pauses for summer break. ‘It’s made a total difference in my life,’ she said. Researchers say the EITC is the nation’s best poverty buffer for low-income workers. It’s also an economic boon for their communities because recipients often need to spend a big chunk of their refunds right away…”

Bill would eliminate state tax credit for working poor, By Karen Bouffard, February 8, 2011, Detroit News: “Tax credits for Michigan’s working poor would be eliminated under a bill introduced in the state Senate today. The bill to repeal the state earned income tax credit (EITC) was met with strong opposition by Democrats and family advocates, who said it would amount to a tax increase for low income workers. The bill was introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who said Michigan can’t afford the $370 million cost. If the bill passes in the Senate and House, and is signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder, the credit would be eliminated at the end of this calendar year…”

For working poor, tax tweak cuts pay, By Brian J. O’Connor, January 31, 2011, Detroit News: “If you haven’t seen the new 2 percent payroll tax cut reflected in your paycheck yet, look closely at your pay stub. But if you don’t make a lot of money, you might not want to look too closely. Today is the deadline for employers to adjust their payroll systems and lower the rate on Social Security payroll taxes to 4.2 percent from 6.2 percent. They’ll also have until March 31 to adjust checks to give back any excess amount withheld so far this year. Sam Morgan, a tow truck driver, said he would be glad to see anything extra in his next paycheck. ‘I would like a tax cut,’ the 25-year-old Madison Heights man said. ‘I can always use more money in my paycheck.’ But for taxpayers making less than $20,000 a year, the new tax cut will turn out to be a tax hike. Workers making $15,000 a year, for example, will pay $100 more in taxes during 2011 than in 2010. And if they file a joint return, they will pay $500 more…”

New tax law may hold a surprise for working poor, By Tim Lockette, January 20, 2011, Anniston Star: “When President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans cut a deal on the extension of Bush-era tax cuts last month, the move was billed as a tax reduction for all. But the working poor may find an unpleasant surprise in their paychecks this month, says one tax expert. ‘If you’re a low-wage earner, you’ll be worse off, as will about 50 million households,’ said Roberton Williams, a scholar at the nonprofit Tax Policy Center, which is run jointly by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. ‘You’ll probably see the effects of the change in your next paycheck.’ The Star contacted Williams after a reader pointed out that her first January paycheck was actually smaller than her paycheck from last year - despite a recent compromise tax bill that was widely interpreted as a tax cut. Republicans and Democrats sparred throughout December over extension of Bush-era cuts to income taxes, which were set to expire Dec. 31 of last year…”

• Minimum wage earners in 7 states getting raises, By Kristen Wyatt (AP), December 30, 2010, Washington Post: “It will be a happier New Year for nearly 650,000 workers earning minimum wage. They’re getting small raises in seven states that tie their salaries to the cost of living. The minimum wages in those states will go up between 9 cents and 12 cents an hour Saturday because their consumer price indexes rose in 2010. The extra pennies can’t come soon enough for Joe Martinez of Denver, who works odd jobs such as lawn maintenance for minimum wage. In Colorado, the wage is rising 11 cents, from the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour to $7.36 an hour. ‘The prices of everything are going up - food, rent, electricity,’ Martinez, 55, said on his lunch break Wednesday. ‘I know it’s not a lot of money, but any extra money will help, you know?’ Poverty advocates say the rising minimum wages shouldn’t be seen as raises, just adjustments to keep the working poor at the same level as prices of goods rise…”
• Minimum wage up to $7.40 in Ohio, By James Pilcher, January 3, 2011, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Workers earning minimum wage in Ohio are getting a New Year’s bump - a 10-cent-an hour raise. Because voters in 2006 approved linking the state’s minimum wage to inflation, Ohio’s minimum wage stands at $7.40 an hour as of Jan. 1, compared to the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. The new hourly wage will affect nearly 270,000 Ohioans in jobs such as restaurant, retail and housekeeping work, based on estimates by the Cleveland-based progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio. But some business experts and economists worry that the pay hike comes at a potentially sensitive time, as state and national economies are sputtering to recover from the recession…”

Recession forces rise in low-wage families, report says, By Michael A. Fletcher, December 21, 2010, Washington Post: “The Great Recession, responsible for boosting unemployment to its highest levels in a generation, has sharply increased the percentage of working people who earn wages so paltry that they are struggling to survive, according to a new report. The share of working families earning less than double the official poverty threshold - $43,512 for a family of four - increased from 28 to 30 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to a report released Tuesday by the Working Families Project, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of the working poor. Overall, the report said, the number of people living in low-income working families increased by 1.7 million to 45 million between 2008 and 2009. In November, the jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent, and has hovered near 10 percent for more than a year…”

Minimum wage increase to have little impact, By David Young, December 13, 2010, The Coloradoan: “Servers and minimum wage workers are set to get a slight raise come the first of the year. Colorado’s minimum wage is set to increase 12 cents starting in 2011 bringing the new minimum wage to $7.36. The minimum tipped employee wage will increase to $4.34 from $4.22. The increase is likely to have little impact on employees or employers according to experts. In accordance with the Colorado Constitution, the state’s minimum wage must be adjusted annually for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index used for the state. Federal minimum wage is currently lower than Colorado’s at $7.25 per hour. Federal tipped minimum wage is currently $2.13 per hour. Martin Shields, CSU Regional economist, said that the increase is not much of an impact on the bottom line. The increase amounts to $4.80 in a 40 hour work week…”

• Child poverty ‘rises’ among working households, December 6, 2010, BBC News: “Child poverty within working households is rising and now accounts for 58% of all UK cases, a report has found. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says there are 2.1 million impoverished youngsters in homes where parents are in work - up slightly on last year. Co-author Tom MacInnes said it showed work alone was not the answer to lifting people above the bread line. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was reforming the welfare system to ensure work always paid. Overall, the number of children living in poverty fell to 3.7 million, the report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion found…”
• Record levels of poverty among families with wages, By Jonathan Owen, December 5, 2010, The Independent: “A record number of children in the UK are living in poverty despite the fact that one or both of their parents work, according to a new report to be published tomorrow. The figure of 2.1 million is the highest on record - up 400,000 in the past five years, undermining the oft-repeated claim that people simply have to work their way out of poverty. The new figure accounts for more than half of the 3.7 million children living in poverty in Britain today, according to researchers from the New Policy Institute (NPI) who produced the report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). It is perhaps the most damning element of an analysis of the past decade, showing how initial progress in some areas has halted or been reversed…”
• Most children living in poverty are not from workless households, report finds, By Karen McVeigh, December 6, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of children of working parents who are living in poverty in the UK has risen to an unprecedented 2.1 million, a report has found. A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that while the number of impoverished children dropped overall to 3.7 million, the majority are now from homes where a parent or carer is working, accounting for 58% of the total. The number who live in workless households fell to 1.6 million - the lowest figure since 1984 - according to the Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report…”

Wage laws squeeze South Africa’s poor, By Celia W. Dugger, September 26, 2010, New York Times: “The sheriff arrived at the factory here to shut it down, part of a national enforcement drive against clothing manufacturers who violate the minimum wage. But women working on the factory floor - the supposed beneficiaries of the crackdown - clambered atop cutting tables and ironing boards to raise anguished cries against it. ‘Why? Why?’ shouted Nokuthula Masango, 25, after the authorities carted away bolts of gaily colored fabric. She made just $36 a week, $21 less than the minimum wage, but needed the meager pay to help support a large extended family that includes her five unemployed siblings and their children. The women’s spontaneous protest is just one sign of how acute South Africa’s long-running unemployment crisis has become. With their own industry in ruinous decline, the victim of low-wage competition from China, and too few unskilled jobs being created in South Africa, the women feared being out of work more than getting stuck in poorly paid jobs. In the 16 years since the end of apartheid, South Africa has followed the prescriptions of the West, opening its market-based economy to trade, while keeping inflation and public debt in check. It has won praise for its efforts, and the economy has grown, but not nearly fast enough to end an intractable unemployment crisis…”

Poverty numbers get muted reaction on Hill, By Michael A. Fletcher, September 18, 2010, Washington Post: “Deborah Weinstein, a longtime advocate for the poor, calls the news that one in seven Americans is living in poverty ‘a national emergency.’ But for much of Washington’s political class, the shocking new poverty numbers provoked not alarm about the poor but further debate over tax cuts for the middle class. ‘We know that a strong middle class leads a strong economy,’ President Obama told reporters in the Rose Garden on Friday, as he used the new census report, which also showed that middle-class income has dipped slightly over the past decade, to continue making his case for limiting the cuts to family incomes under $250,000. Meanwhile, Republican leaders in the House and Senate had no reaction to the poverty report. But earlier in the week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to argue for extending the tax breaks to everyone, saying, ‘We can’t let the people who have been hit hardest by this recession and who we need to create jobs to get us out of it’ be subject to a tax increase. McConnell’s spokesman later clarified the statement, saying that McConnell indeed believes the economic downturn has hit the poor harder than it has high-income business owners, who also have suffered. The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political constituency…”

New job means lower wages for many, By Michael Luo, August 31, 2010, New York Times: “After being out of work for more than a year, Donna Ings, 47, finally landed a job in February as a home health aide with a company in Lexington, Mass., earning about $10 an hour. Chelsea Nelson, 21, started two weeks ago as a waitress at a truck stop in Mountainburg, Ark., making around $7 or $8 an hour, depending on tips, ending a lengthy job search that took her young family to California and back. Both are ostensibly economic success stories, people who were able to find work in a difficult labor market. Ms. Ings’s employer, Home Instead Senior Care, a company with franchises across the country, has been expanding assertively. Ms. Nelson’s restaurant, Silver Bridge Truck Stop, recently reopened and hired about 20 people last month in an area thirsty for jobs. Both women, however, took large pay cuts from their old jobs - Ms. Ings worked for a wholesale tuxedo distributor, Ms. Nelson was a secretary. And both remain worried about how they will make ends meet in the long run. With the country focused on job growth and with unemployment continuing to hover above 9 percent, comparatively little attention has been paid to the quality of the jobs being created and what that might say about the opportunities available to workers when the recession finally settles. There are reasons for concern, however, even in the early stages of a tentative recovery that now appears to be barely wheezing along…”

• Youth unemployment hits record high, By Katie Allen, August 11, 2010, The Guardian: “Global youth unemployment has hit a record high and is expected to rise further, according to a report from the International Labour Organisation, which echoes warnings in the UK that young people continue to be the hardest hit by the recession. Of around 620 million economically active 15 to 24-year-olds, 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009, the highest number since records began in 1991, the UN agency says. That put the global youth unemployment rate at 13%, up from 11.9% just before the global downturn in 2007…”
• UN labor report shows drastic increase in youth unemployment, By Lisa Schlein, August 12, 2010, Deutsche Welle: “According to a United Nations report released on Thursday, labor market trends for young people have taken a drastic turn for the worse since 2007, when global youth unemployment remained fairly stagnant. For the 10 years prior to the economic crisis, the report noted the number of unemployed youth around the world had increased by an average of 200,000 per year. In 2009, however, youth unemployment increased by a staggering 6.7 million. Sara Elder, an economist with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and co-author of the report, says youth unemployment is most severe in the developed economies and non-EU, central and southeastern Europe…”
• Global youth unemployment reaches new high, By Matthew Saltmarsh, August 11, 2010, New York Times: “Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a ‘lost generation’ as more young people give up the search for work. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 - the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva. The youth unemployment rate increased to 13 percent in 2009 from 11.9 percent in the last assessment in 2007…”

Ill. penalizes employers who shortchange workers, By Sophia Tareen (AP), July 30, 2010, Washington Post: “Employers who shortchange or don’t pay their employees will face stiffer penalties and workers will have more rights under a bill Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Friday, which experts say makes Illinois’ wage theft laws among the strongest in the country. Starting Jan. 1, a repeat offense will be considered a felony, not a misdemeanor. Also, employers who violate wage theft laws will have to pay workers back from the date of nonpayment with interest and a $250 fine. Depending on the violation, the employer may also owe interest to the Illinois Department of Labor…”

Child care subsidies keep ‘poorest of the poor’ at work, By Yvonne Wenger, July 25, 2010, Charleston Post and Courier: “Five months and 100-plus job applications after Tamara Townsend’s boss laid her off from her full-time job with a steady paycheck, the 30-year-old single mother finally found work in May. But this job is commission-only selling alarm systems. Some weeks she doesn’t clear a dime. Whether she scores a sale or not doesn’t change the fact that she has to pay for full-time day care for her 7- and 4-year-old daughters. Townsend moved back into her parents’ West Ashley home after she lost her job at a car dealership that went under in December. She was able to secure a scholarship to help offset her weekly bill at Preschool Academy. Still, juggling the cost of child care and a job that isn’t paying the bills makes it hard to justify working. But Townsend doesn’t want to give up trying. It’s a matter of pride and not wanting to set a bad example for her girls. Townsend has joined the growing ranks of middle- and low-income families that can’t afford child care. The Great Recession and lingering economic slump have left many parents to choose between work or staying home, depending on one income or turning to government assistance…”

Jobless Michigan teens can thank the minimum wage hike, By Michael Saltsman, July 21, 2010, Detroit News: “Teens have it pretty tough these days. From bullies and standardized tests to peer pressure and Facebook fights, modernity is adding stress to every aspect of the lives of young adults. This summer, you can add the death of the entry-level job to that list of woes. Young adults are facing unprecedented unemployment rates — and the figures for dropouts and minorities are even more staggering. No matter how you slice it, the numbers are bad. The unemployment rate for Michigan teens is averaging over 26 percent — more than one in four are looking for work and unable to find it. Vulnerable groups like high school dropouts and minorities have been hit especially hard. Dropouts between the age of 16 and 24 were dealing with 33 percent unemployment in April. African-American dropouts in the same age group suffered an eye-popping 60 percent unemployment…”

Special savings accounts can help break cycle of poverty, By Kathy M. Kristof, July 4, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Dametria Williams started her financial life as a statistic - a poor single mom, just like her mother and grandmother before her. But the San Francisco healthcare worker decided to break the cycle of poverty. Now the 38-year-old is a college graduate on the cusp of opening her own business. She is also raising a high-achieving teenager who is in position to win merit-based college scholarships. She attributes her life’s 180-degree turn to two things: a new attitude and a savings account with matching funds provided to low-income participants. ‘I used to walk through the world thinking there is never enough,’ she said. ‘There is not enough money, there is not enough food, there is not enough time. When you are in the mind-set of thinking there is not enough, you aren’t even looking for help. But when you realize that there is enough - that money is a manageable tool - you start to see what help is available to you.’ The key for Williams was a so-called Individual Development Account, which funded tutoring for her daughter and is now helping Williams save for her business…”

Minimum wage goes to $8.25 today, By John R. Pulliam, July 1, 2010, Galesburg Register-Mail: “Workers who are paid minimum wage in Illinois received a 25 cents per hour raise, from $8 to $8.25, effective today. The increase is the fourth since then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation when the minimum wage was $6.50 an hour. On July 1, 2007, the wage went to $7.50, with 25 cents per hour increases in 2008, 2009 and today. Many politicians and business leaders contend that the relatively high minimum wage in Illinois causes businesses to shy away from the state. The only states with higher minimum wages than Illinois are Pennsylvania, $9.35; Washington, $8.55 and Oregon, $8.40. Connecticut and the District of Columbia both have $8.25 an hour minimum wages. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour…”

Health-care overhaul will improve insurance options for part-time workers, By Michelle Andrews, June 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Sarah Rose Nordgren works 25 to 30 hours a week as a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. She also tutors high- schoolers on their college entrance essays and has an editorial internship at a book publisher. But if something were to go seriously wrong with her health, she’d be in trouble because none of her three jobs offers health insurance. She’s been looking for a full-time job with benefits for several months, but there’s nothing on the horizon. So she shuttles between jobs and hopes that she stays healthy. Nordgren’s situation is not unusual. Fewer than a third of employers that offer health insurance make it available to their part-time workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the foundation.) And even if health insurance benefits are offered, part-timers, who often work in lower-paid retail, restaurant and service jobs, may not be able to afford them…”

Don’t ignore low-income spill victims, advocates urge BP, By Deborah Barfield Berry, June 26, 2010, USA Today: “Vicky Townley is waiting to hear whether BP will compensate her for tip income she says she’s lost because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ‘Things are so slow we’re basically living from paycheck to paycheck, which is not very much,’ said Townley, a bartender in Gulf Shores, Ala., who filed her lost-wages claim three weeks ago. Before the spill, she said, she earned $60 a day in tips during the summer months, which helped in the long slog to rebound from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. ‘Things were just starting to pick up,’ she said. ‘Then the recession, then the oil. What next?’ Gulf Coast groups representing low-income workers say they want to make sure BP’s claims process doesn’t overlook workers like Townley in the rush to compensate fishermen and other high-priority spill victims…”

• Number of uninsured jumped by nearly 3 million in 2009, By Steven Reinberg, June 20, 2010, USA Today: “For some Americans, health care reform may be arriving none too soon: The number of U.S. adults not covered by health insurance jumped by 2.9 million people from 2008 to 2009. In 2009 - the year in which the latest statistics are available - 46.3 million American adults had no health insurance, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means one in five working-age adults is uninsured, and the situation is still worse in some states: nearly one in four Texans, for example, lack any form of health coverage…”
• 4 in 10 in Michigan uninsured, on public plan, By Patricia Anstett, June 20, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “The impact of the state’s sour economy is clear in a new report: More than 3.8 million Michiganders — nearly 4 of 10 people who live here — were uninsured or covered by a public program. Michigan also sank from best in the nation to sixth-best among states with the most uninsured children between 2005 and 2008, according to the annual Cover Michigan report to be released Monday by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. A partnership of the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the center compiles some of the most comprehensive data in the state on health insurance coverage. Michigan still has some of the nation’s most affordable rates, ranking ninth-lowest in yearly premiums, the report found…”
• Health aid urged for low-wage workers, By Kay Lazar, June 20, 2010, Boston Globe: “Thousands of uninsured Massachusetts workers in low-wage jobs are ineligible for state-subsidized health coverage, but they will qualify for these low-cost plans under the new national health care overhaul - in 2014. Now, some consumer advocates, arguing that the wait is unfair and a black eye for the state, want the Patrick administration and legislators to launch a program to cover at least part of this group. Administration officials, already facing huge budget deficits, say the state can’t afford the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to subsidize additional workers’ insurance…”

Teens facing a tough labor market this summer, By Karen Herzog, June 3, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Young people are being squeezed out of summer jobs, and seasonal employers will have to do more with less, as a dramatically increased minimum wage that went into effect last year affects summer hiring for the first time. Wisconsin’s minimum wage increased for the first time in three years last July 24, from $5.90 an hour to $7.25 an hour for minors, and from $6.50 to $7.25 for adults. The biggest hit was to the state’s agricultural sector, including produce farms that hire kids to help guide suburbanites through strawberry patches. Though an agricultural exemption previously allowed farms to pay minors $4.25 per hour, all farm employees - regardless of age - now must be paid at least $7.25 an hour. Tween and young teen workers used to be bargain employees for farms, which in turn taught them how to be good workers. But the disappearance of the agricultural exemption is shifting more of those jobs to older teens who require less supervision…”

• Freeze over, minimum wage up by $26 a week, By Ben Schneiders and Misha Schubert, June 4, 2010, The Age: “More than 1.4 million low-paid workers will receive their biggest pay rise in many years after the first decision by the Rudd government’s new workplace tribunal in a move attacked by employers as ‘excessive’ and ‘irresponsible’. Employers warned of a threat to jobs and said it would add $2.5 billion to the small business wages bill after the decision to lift award-reliant workers’ wages from July 1 by $26 a week to $569.90 a week or $15 an hour. The decision - $1 a week less than the ACTU’s claim - comes after minimum wages were controversially frozen last year in the final ruling of the Fair Pay Commission, the body set up by the Howard government…”
• Opinion split over minimum wage rise, June 4, 2010, ABC News: “Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed concerns that Thursday’s decision to increase the minimum wage will put pressure on inflation and employment growth. Fair Work Australia has granted Australia’s lowest paid workers a wage increase of $26 a week, bringing the minimum weekly wage to almost $570. But business groups are furious, saying the increase is risky, irresponsible, unjustified and will cost jobs. Ms Gillard says the pay rise will give low-paid workers a fairer share of the benefits of Australia’s economic recovery…”

• Rudd government backs pay rise for 1.4m low-paid workers, By Ewin Hannan, May 18, 2010, The Australian: “Canberra is backing an above-inflation wage rise this year for the nation’s 1.4 million low-paid workers, prompting employers to warn they will be forced to shed jobs and cut hours if the position is backed by the wages umpire. As unions renewed their push for a $27-a-week increase in the minimum wage, the government said increases in minimum wages could allow low-paid workers to share in the benefits of economic growth, while ensuring jobs growth continued. Appearing before Fair Work Australia’s minimum wage panel, government advocate John Kovacic said the pay of low-income workers had ‘gone backwards’ as a result of last year’s minimum wage freeze…”
• Most sides support a rise in minimum wage after freeze, By Kirsty Needham, May 18, 2010, Sydney Morning Herald: “Eric Abetz, the opposition’s workplace spokesman, has joined the federal government and unions in supporting a rise in the minimum wage to make up for last year’s freeze. Unions and business groups are appearing this week before the Fair Work Australia tribunal, which will decide the first minimum wage case since taking over from the Howard-era Fair Pay Commission. Mr Abetz said yesterday there was a strong case for a catch-up rise, the line also being pushed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. ‘Australian workers took to the task of assisting us through the global financial crisis. Now that we’re coming through I think it makes sense to have a catch-up,’ he said…”

Free money left on table, By Armand Emamdjomeh, April 29, 2010, New York Times: “What if residents of California - a state reeling from unemployment, a sagging economy and a gaping budget hole - had access to more than $1 billion, but did not use it? What if Alameda County residents had access to $29 million and failed to take it out of the federal treasury? That is exactly what they have been doing, according to a new report, ‘Left on the Table,’ by two professors at California State University, Fresno, which was published by the New America Foundation. An estimated 800,000 California residents will fail to claim a total of $1.2 billion in 2009 earned-income tax credit refunds, the report says. California has the highest rate of unclaimed earned-income tax credits nationally, with nearly a quarter of qualified residents failing to claim the credit when they file their taxes, according to studies by both the Internal Revenue Service and the Government Accountability Office…”

• Job training urged for ex-convicts in New Orleans, By Katie Urbaszewski, April 29, 2010, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “The Home Builders Institute isn’t satisfied with just the 400 New Orleanians — some young adults in low-income families and some residents from Central City housing projects — they’ve trained to find jobs in the construction industry and now wants to create a similar career training program for those recently released from prison. That was the topic of the institute’s meeting with the Rebuilding a Better New Orleans advisory council Wednesday, their fifth meeting to hear community input as the life of the institute’s grant nears its last month and they search for new funding. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the nation, 48 percent above the national average, said Roger Grissom, New Orleans program development manager of the Home Builders Institute. One out of every 55 Louisiana residents is behind bars, according to a study of 2007 U.S. Census data by the Pew Center for the States…”
• Is state jobs program luring employers?, By Laylan Copelin, April 26, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is crisscrossing the state to promote his plan that pays employers with state tax dollars to hire unemployed Texans. He touts it as a way for the state to save money by getting people off unemployment and jump-starting a Texas economy that many fear could be in a long, slow recovery. ‘We’ve got to grow this locomotive called the Texas economy,’ Dewhurst said in February as he kicked off the $15 million program. He already is talking about extending the nascent program during next year’s legislative session, and the Texas Workforce Commission is trying to persuade federal officials to give it $50 million in stimulus money to triple the program’s size. The program pays employers $2,000 for each unemployed person they hire and retain for at least four months. As of Friday, 682 Texans had been hired by 421 employers statewide. In many instances, however, employers say the state is paying them to do what they would be doing anyway: filling crucial vacancies, expanding only when business conditions warrant or, in the case of high-turnover industries such as call centers, filling their constant roster of openings…”

Paid sick leave pushed for low-income workers, By Tony Pugh, April 27, 2010, Miami Herald: “Fresh off passage of a sweeping health care overhaul, the Obama administration is supporting legislation to provide mandatory paid sick leave for more than 30 million additional workers, who are some of nation’s lowest-paid employees. The Healthy Families Act, sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, both Democrats from Connecticut, would require companies that have 15 or more employees to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked or up to seven sick days a year for a full-time worker. Both bills - HR 2460/S1152 - are stuck in committee and haven’t yet faced a vote. In fact, most legislative action has come at the state and municipal level. In recent years, California, Ohio, Maine and New Jersey have considered bills requiring paid sick leave. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have passed laws that require it for private-sector employees. New York City is debating a similar measure…”

Many low-wage workers eligible for unemployment benefits aren’t receiving them, By Jackie Headapohl, April 26, 2010, MLive.com: “A new University of Michigan study suggests that provisions in the economic stimulus fall short of helping low-wage and part-time workers receive unemployment benefits, even when they qualify. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a pool of $7 billion for states that adopted measures to increase eligibility for unemployment insurance. These measures included allowing workers to include recent earnings in their eligibility calculations, expanding eligibility to those who quit for ‘compelling family reasons’ such as domestic violence and enhancing eligibility of part-time workers. A new University of Michigan study suggests that provisions in the economic stimulus fall short of helping low-wage and part-time workers receive unemployment benefits, even when they qualify…”

• Many Americans struggling with rising rental housing costs, By Tony Pugh, April 21, 2010, Miami Herald: “The gap between the cost of renting a modest apartment and the wages of working families continues to widen, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. ‘Out of Reach 2010′ paints a gloomy picture for the nation’s nearly 38 million renters, who make up a third of U.S. households. On average, a family must earn $38,355 a year, $18.44 an hour, to afford a simple two-bedroom apartment at the 2010 national average fair market rent of $959. However, the average wage for U.S. renters is $14.44 an hour, down from $14.69 last year. Further, more than 60 percent of U.S. renters live in counties where even the average one-bedroom fair market rent of $805 isn’t affordable for average wage earners, the study found. Minimum wage earners are at the greatest disadvantage. Under the standard measure of affordability - housing costs should account for no more than 30 percent of income - full-time minimum wage earners can’t afford one-bedroom apartments in any county in the country, even though Congress hiked the minimum wage from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 last year…”
• Some renters in Utah are still struggling, By Lesley Mitchell, April 21, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “After years of hefty rental increases, rates are stabilizing and in some areas falling. But affordable-housing advocates say rents are still too high for many low- to moderate-income families. The general rule is that housing costs — either in the form of rent or a mortgage — shouldn’t account for more than 30 percent of a family’s income, leaving enough money for food and other necessities. ‘But in Utah, there are many families paying more than 50 percent,’ said Tara Rollins of the Utah Housing Coalition. The coalition on Wednesday released “Out of Reach,” a report that compares incomes in the state with rental rates. It shows that a person or family would have to earn $2,560 monthly, or about $30,700 annually, to afford a two-bedroom apartment that runs $768 per month — without paying out more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Rollins said many don’t make that much money but still pay that level of rent…”
• Hawaii rents, already least affordable in nation, get worse, By Mary Vorsino, April 22, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “At a time when Hawai’i families are weathering pay cuts and job losses, here’s more gloomy news: The income needed to afford a modest two-bedroom rental in the Islands rose by nearly $3,000 this year to $64,396 annually - $26,000 more than the national average, a report on housing affordability shows. The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2010 Out of Reach study, which was released yesterday, again ranks Hawai’i as the least affordable state in the nation for renters - a spot it has held since 2005. The study puts Hawai’i’s ‘housing wage,’ a calculation of the minimum hourly pay needed to rent a two-bedroom home, at $30.96 in 2010, up from $29.53 (or $61,428 annually) the year before. Those figures are based on fair market rents, which in 2010 rose to $1,610 a month for a two-bedroom in the Islands, up from $1,536 a month the year before…”

Japan tries to face up to growing poverty problem, By Martin Fackler, April 21, 2010, New York Times: “Satomi Sato, a 51-year-old widow, knew she had it tough, raising a teenage daughter on the less than $17,000 a year she earned from two jobs. Still, she was surprised last autumn when the government announced for the first time an official poverty line - and she was below it. ‘I don’t want to use the word poverty, but I’m definitely poor,’ said Ms. Sato, who works mornings making boxed lunches and afternoons delivering newspapers. ‘Poverty is still a very unfamiliar word in Japan.’ After years of economic stagnation and widening income disparities, this once proudly egalitarian nation is belatedly waking up to the fact that it has a large and growing number of poor people. The Labor Ministry’s disclosure in October that almost one in six Japanese, or 20 million people, lived in poverty in 2007 stunned the nation and ignited a debate over possible remedies that has raged ever since…”

• Minimum wage rising 50¢, By Larry Kusch, April 4, 2010, Winnipeg Free Press: “Coming Oct. 1, some 28,000 Manitobans will get a raise in pay. The province will announce today that it is raising the minimum wage this fall by 50 cents an hour — to $9.50. Business leaders hoped for a smaller increase — or no increase at all — at a time when many employers are suffering economically, while the Manitoba Federation of Labour sought a 75-cent-an-hour rise effective this past April 1. Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard said in an interview Wednesday the government tried to balance the needs of workers and business. The hospitality industry and seasonal agricultural businesses won’t incur higher costs until fall, she said. ‘Yet a 50-cent increase will allow us to maintain our position relative to other provinces… (and) also give those folks who earn minimum wage a significant enough increase that they would be able to buy things they need for their families…’”
• Minimum wage rises again in Man., April 8, 2010, CBC News: “Manitoba’s minimum wage is going up again and businesses are not pleased about it. The provincial government announced Thursday the hourly wage will rise 50 cents to $9.50. The change will take effect in October, said Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard. ‘This increase will help maintain the spending power of approximately 28,000 people working in minimum-wage jobs,’ she said. ‘The improved wage will give them a fairer income while helping Manitoba businesses recruit and retain workers.’ The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the increase comes at a terrible time Shannon Martin, the CFIB’s director of provincial affairs in Manitoba, said the recession has hurt small businesses…”

• Jobs program lost its way - and tax money, By Todd Wallack, March 14, 2010, Boston Globe: “The blue sign on the building says Nortel Networks, but it might as well be ‘Your tax dollars at work.’ In exchange for more than $2 million in state and local tax breaks, the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker promised a decade ago to expand its campus in Billerica, keeping 2,200 existing jobs and adding as many as 800 more. But instead of adding jobs, the struggling company has steadily slashed its operations for years. Today, it has 145 employees. It also still has those tax breaks, set to continue through 2014. And Nortel, amazingly, is by no means an isolated case. Over the past 16 years, Massachusetts has given away hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax breaks for more than 1,300 development projects under its Economic Development Incentive Program, which aims to encourage companies to invest here and create jobs. Often the incentives work and new jobs result. But far too often taxpayers have not come close to getting their money’s worth, a Globe review has found…”
• Rich towns get ‘distressed’ status, By Todd Wallack, March 15, 2010, Boston Globe: “Hingham boasts million-dollar estates along its scenic shoreline, stately antique houses on Main Street, and boutique shops around the town square. The median household income is nearly $113,000 a year, well above the state and national average, while unemployment is well below the statewide rate. Yet Massachusetts has long classified Hingham as ‘economically distressed.’ The South Shore town is on the state’s list of economic target areas, allowing several companies, including a six-screen movie theater and a clothing store, to qualify for special tax breaks in exchange for a promise to open there. And Hingham is not the only unlikely-seeming hard luck case. Over the last 16 years, the state has designated ‘economic target areas’ in 209 of the state’s 351 cities and towns, making companies eligible for tax breaks if they expand there. Among them are such other comfortable suburbs as Hopkinton, Bedford, Lexington, and Westwood. Though lawmakers originally created the Economic Development Incentive Program in 1993 to nudge businesses to invest in decaying cities and other areas scarred by poverty and unemployment, such as Fall River and Lawrence, the state has, over time, expanded the program to include almost any municipality that applies…”

In hard times, lured into trade school and debt, By Peter S. Goodman, March 13, 2010, New York Times: “One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools. At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year. But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students…”

Number of minimum-wage earners in Texas surges, By Scott Nishimura, March 11, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The number of Texans earning minimum wage surged in 2009, after the wage increased to $7.25 from $6.55, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. Last year, 474,000 Texans earned minimum wage or below, up 200,000 over the year, the bureau said. Those workers accounted for 8.5 percent of hourly wage earners in Texas…”

Maine may index minimum wage, By Deborah McDermott, March 1, 2010, Portsmouth Herald: “The Maine Legislature’s Joint Labor Committee is currently debating a bill that would tie the state’s minimum wage to cost-of-living increases - a measure that has strong detractors and passionate supporters. LD 192, introduced by Sanford Democratic Rep. John Tuttle, requires the Department of Labor to calculate the inflation-adjusted miminum hourly wage based on changes in the CPI for the Northeast each Jan. 1, starting this year. Excluded from the calculations would be any month in which the state’s unemployment rate exceeds the national unemployment rate. So far, Maine’s rate hasn’t exceeded the national rate. Maine’s hourly minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, 25 cents an hour higher than the federal minimum. If Tuttle’s bill passes, Maine will be the 11th state that indexes minimum wage. A similar effort in New Hampshire was killed last year, leaving the Granite State’s minimum at $7.25 an hour…”

A snapshot of income disparity, By Tim Rutten, February 24, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “On the eve of our worst financial crisis since the Depression, the United States was — from an economic standpoint, at least — a less equal nation than at any time since the Gilded Age. The sputtering recovery now underway is producing few, if any, jobs to replace those that have been lost. Meanwhile, a variety of factors continues to push wages and most salaries lower. Thus, we’re likely to emerge from this downturn with even greater disparities in income, wealth and effective tax rates, and the forces pushing us in that direction are particularly strong in Los Angeles County. We have a pre-recession portrait of American inequality because, in 1992, the Clinton administration asked the Internal Revenue Service to begin tracking the incomes and tax payments of the country’s 400 richest households. During the George W. Bush years, the IRS continued to collect the data, but — you’ll be shocked to know — didn’t release it to the public. Last week, the figures for 2007 were quietly made available, and, as David Cay Johnston, who formerly covered tax policy for the New York Times and now teaches at Syracuse University’s law school, points out, ‘The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low…’”

$3.8B in stimulus funds for welfare jobs untouched, By Dionne Walker (AP), February 19, 2010, Washington Post: “Desperate though they are to fill gaps in their budgets, more than half the states in the country haven’t touched a $5 billion pot of federal stimulus funds meant to find work for welfare recipients. Leaders in most states have hesitated to pony up the matching funds the program requires to create jobs that might not last after the federal subsidy’s Sept. 30 sunset date. The Department of Health and Human Services has handed out $1.2 billion of the emergency cash for general welfare programs. That includes $124 million that went to 21 states and the District of Colombia to help them ease caseloads by paying employers to hire low-skilled, low-income workers. States such as California, Tennessee and Georgia - where officials have seen unemployment rates spike among recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - are eagerly tapping the fund to subsidize the creation of thousands of jobs they say keep these workers from sinking further into poverty…”

Earned-income credit boosts Michigan’s low-income workers, By Brian J. O’Connor, February 16, 2010, Detroit News: “Michiganians struggling to just get by in this dismal economy are getting a helping hand from an unlikely source: the tax man. Federal and state tax agencies have anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars to give low-income workers and their families through the Earned Income Tax Credit. Last year, more than 720,000 Michigan residents collected $1.5 billion from the federal credit, at an average of $2,047 apiece. More than 40 percent of those getting the credit lived in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties. Michigan gave out $145 million under the first year of its own state credit, which matched 10 percent of the federal cash, and this year the state is set to match 20 percent of the federal amount…”

Tax break may grow for working poor, By Peter Wong, February 14, 2010, Salem Statesman Journal: “An expansion of a tax break for poor working families won support from Portland to Medford - and Woodburn. The expanded break, in the form of an earned-income tax credit, no longer would benefit Ian Finch of Portland or state Rep. Betty Komp of Woodburn. But both qualified for the federal credit, which is subtracted directly from taxes owed - and they said an expanded state credit would help thousands of families. Finch used the credit while, as a single father of five children, he was working and going to school - even though he said he could have drawn more from welfare payments. ‘Increasing the state earned-income tax credit will help other families who work really hard to break the cycle of poverty,’ Finch told the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee last week. ‘This is also an opportunity for the state of Oregon to send the message to these hard-working families that they are valued and that the state recognizes all their hard work…’”

IRS expands Earned Income Tax Credit for 2009, January 29, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “There’s a bright spot in the nation’s dismal economic climate this tax season: The Internal Revenue Service has expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2009, meaning more families are eligible for a larger return from the federal government. The EITC now includes low-income working families with three or more children, and the top income limit has increased to $48,279 from $41,646 in 2008. Changes also have been made to the definition of a qualifying child. The IRS estimates more than 5 million additional families will be eligible for the expanded credit this year. The EITC gave back $50 billion to 24 million taxpayers across the country in 2008, said David Williams, director of electronic tax administration and refundable credits for the IRS. ‘EITC is one of the largest and most effective anti-poverty programs in government. It lifted millions of people out of poverty last year,’ Williams said…”

Oregon’s rich getting richer and all others falling behind, wage study shows, By Jeff Manning, January 24, 2010, The Oregonian: “A new analysis of state wages shows that the gulf between Oregon’s wealthy and everyone else continues to widen. Oregon’s wealthiest are not only earning more, but the rate at which their incomes are growing far outstrips the middle class and the poor. Meanwhile, the middle class continued to encounter stagnant wages this past decade — even during the vaunted economic boom that preceded the bust — and saw its compensation fall back to 2001 levels in the recession-racked year of 2008, according to a draft analysis of wage trends by the Oregon Employment Department. Inflation-adjusted annual wages for Oregon’s top 2 percent of earners hit $153,480 on average in 2008, a 29.5 percent increase from 1990. Workers at the 50 percentile, meanwhile, earned $32,659 in 2008, an increase of just 2.4 percent over 1990 after adjusting for inflation…”

Many workers unaware of D.C. sick-leave law passed in 2008, By Ann E. Marimow, January 25, 2010, Washington Post: “More than a year after the District became the second city in the nation to require most employers to provide paid sick leave, proponents of the law say many workers are unaware of their rights and businesses are unclear about their responsibilities. Advocates for low-wage workers and business leaders say the Fenty administration has delayed finalizing new rules that would get the word out to the community. Until those regulations are spelled out, critics say, workers are not guaranteed protection…”

Alaska’s minimum wage increases 50 cents to $7.75, By Elizabeth Bluemink, January 11, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “Thousands of Alaska’s lowest-paid workers are receiving a boost in their paychecks in the first couple weeks of this year. Due to a change in state law, the state’s minimum wage rose on Jan. 1 to $7.75 per hour. Minimum-wage earners working full time can expect a $1,040 hike in their annual salary — an additional $20 per week. That’s on top of the $4 per week increase they received in July to keep Alaska’s minimum wage even with the federal level. By the most conservative estimates, the wage hike is directly affecting more than 8,000 workers in Alaska, more than half of them adults, according to state officials. Most of them are employed at hotels and restaurants, but they also work in seafood processing, the arts, health care, construction and other jobs…”

• L.A. leads New York, Chicago in abuse of low-wage workers, survey says, By Patrick J. McDonnell, January 6, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Low-wage workers in the Los Angeles area are even more likely than their counterparts in New York and Chicago to suffer violations of minimum wage, overtime and other labor laws, according to a new UCLA study being released today. The study found that almost nine out of 10 low-wage workers surveyed in Los Angeles County had recently experienced some form of pay-related workplace violation, or “wage theft.” Almost one in three reported being paid less than the minimum wage and nearly 80% said they had not received legally mandated overtime…”
• As wage theft rises, states and cities crack down, By Sophia Tareen and Laura Wides-Munoz (AP), December 17, 2009, BusinessWeek: “Fabian Gutierrez logged more than 60 hours a week slicing meat and stocking shelves with cheeses and milk at a neighborhood grocery for less than minimum wage and no overtime. The 32-year-old Mexican immigrant said he put up with the situation for months because he was desperate to support his wife and young daughter. And like many co-workers, he was afraid to challenge his boss. ‘All of us took abuse. We were disrespected,’ said Gutierrez, who found help at a workers’ rights center, joined with other workers to sue the owner of La Fruteria and now works at another grocery store that he says treats him better. Across the nation, the long-simmering problem of employers who don’t pay their workers appears to be getting worse, especially for immigrant laborers…”

Colorado minimum wage drops 3 cents, By Kristen Wyatt (AP), January 1, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “Colorado’s minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year - the first decrease in any state’s minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938. Colorado’s wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That’s because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living rises. But Colorado’s provision also allows wage declines, and the state’s consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down…”

• Can’t miss work, child sick…, By Suzanne Cassidy, November 29, 2009, Lancaster Sunday News: “If you have a fever, stay home from work. If your kids have a fever, they should stay home from school. That’s what the experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been saying for months, in an effort to wrestle H1N1 influenza into submission. It’s a pretty straightforward message. But for some people, heeding it is anything but simple…”
• Paid sick leave for the worker can benefit all, By Petula Dvorak, December 1, 2009, Washington Post: “The coughing starts in the middle of the night. And while you are watching your child’s poor little body in footed pajamas curl up with every hacking spasm, you are doing the calculations in your head, realizing that you are absolutely hosed if you miss work the next day. I’ve been there so many times. Practically every working parent I know has. Whether it’s a dwindling stockpile of sick days, the risk of no pay, a crucial presentation, a testy boss or a volatile job market deep inside a recession, that bedside decision of whether to stay home with a sniffly kid or send him to school has a new sense of urgency this year. In a world where hand sanitizers and masks are handed out at work and the president has declared H1N1 a national emergency, parents who cannot afford to miss a day of work and send their kids to school despite signs of illness are putting other children at risk…”