485 results for author: Karl Kramer
Arizona minimum wage set to increase again in 2022
Sep 20, 2021
By Brandon Brown, Phoenix Business Journal
PHOENIX — Arizona’s minimum wage is set to increase again for the fifth straight year in 2022.
Starting Jan. 1, employers across the state will have to pay workers at least $12.80 an hour, the Industrial Commission of Arizona announced Thursday. That is up 5.3% from the $12.15 minimum wage in 2021.
The increase comes off the back of a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows that the Consumer Price Index rose 5.3% from August 2020 to August 2021.
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Where Survival Becomes a Full-Time Job
Sep 16, 2021
By Florian Zandt
Even though most of the states in the U.S. have passed their own minimum wage laws, the federal minimum wage remains unchanged at 7.25 U.S. dollars since July 2009. Taking this into consideration, it's no surprise that U.S. residents earning minimum wage on average have to work the longest to simply escape poverty, as our chart indicates.
According to the most recent data by the OECD, single adults in the United States need to work 61 hours a week at minimum wage to make it across the poverty line, which the OECD sets at 50 percent of the country's median disposable income. read more
Why U.S. Workers Are Earning $15 an Hour Without Much of a Fight
September 16, 2021
By Michael Sasso, Bloomberg
The push for a $15 federal minimum wage may have stalled in Congress, but Covid-19 is helping steer the U.S. ever closer toward a key objective of labor unions and their allies in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
An analysis of jobs posted from spring 2019 to spring 2021 from a sampling of cities shows many service-sector industries crossed above a $15 starting wage during the period, often by significant margins, according to Emsi Burning Glass, an analytics firm that tracks job postings to glean labor market insights. The trend seems to have gathered steam in the recovery from the Covid ...
On this Labor Day, advocating for just wages means fighting company theft
Sep 6, 2021
by Stephenie Overman, National Catholic Reporter
Exactly what constitutes a just or living wage, one that enables workers to support themselves and their families in a way consistent with human dignity, may be open to debate.
But one element — wage theft — is clear. It's the failure to pay workers what they are legally due — it is misclassifying workers, avoiding overtime pay or requiring employees to work "off the clock."
Conversations on just wages and the economy should include such fundamentals, said Daniel Graff, director of the University of Notre Dame's Higgins Labor Program, part of the university's Center for ...
Lawmakers propose raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 an hour
By Juliana Tornabene, Published: Jun. 17, 2021
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Two lawmakers from Madison have introduced legislation Thursday to raise the Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. State Sen. Melissa Agard (D-Madison) and State Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) introduced the legislation as a part of a broader package. It would initially raise the wage from $7.25 to $10.15 an hour, then it would rise to $15 a year later. Read more