JUST IDEAS
It’s Time to Make Sure Nobody is Paid Less Than the Minimum Wage
Eighty years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt called for a national floor on wages to ensure “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a core part of the New Deal, the federal minimum wage falls far short of that goal.
From family leave to inclusive paid leave — the importance of the disability lens
Nearly all of us will need to take time away from a job at some point to address a family member’s or our own serious illness, or to welcome a new child into our family. Unfortunately, in the United States we have a patchwork system filled with holes when it comes to paid leave.
Stop pointing at Asian Americans to downplay racism at universities
Offering up an imaginary monolithic culture as the model for success is futile and dangerous. The model minority rhetoric ignores institutional racism against Asian Americans, not to mention fundamental differences in the history and current reality faced by other people of color, such as African Americans and Latinos.
Block grants would be a disaster. Here’s how we know.
Republicans are advancing yet another effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act that is as bad as the one defeated in July, if not worse. This one makes large use of block grants, a long-standing Republican idea to promote “state flexibility.”
The Obama Legacy: Place-Based Poverty
I have spent the last 50-plus years of my life fighting poverty. In 1967, when I worked for Senator Robert Kennedy as his legislative aide, the Senator and I traveled to Mississippi. We saw children starving—literally—with bloated bellies, open sores that wouldn’t heal. Our nation did the right thing then—we expanded the food stamp program—and that’s why you don’t see that kind of starvation here today.
But we had to fight for it. And now we are going to have to fight again.
I Was Homeless in Rural America. Here’s How to Help Families Like Mine.
Source: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Originally posted on Talkpoverty.org After we packed what was left of our belongings into our rusted-out minivan, my siblings and I loaded in to avoid the rain. We squeezed in among the garbage bags full of clothes, the kitchen...
The Tipped Minimum Wage Hasn’t Budged in 25 Years. That’s a Problem.
Originally posted on The Leadership Conference Education Fund After a quarter century, change has yet to come for tipped workers in the United States. Since 1991 – the last time the federal tipped minimum wage was increased – the first iPod was released and Google...
What Candidates Should Say about Poverty and Opportunity at Ryan’s Forum
First published on TalkPoverty.org and cross-posted on BillMoyers.com. This Saturday, a number of Republican presidential candidates will converge in South Carolina to debate and discuss “fighting poverty and expanding opportunity in America.” We hope that they...
New Research Documents Growth of Extreme Poverty
Cross-posted by several other media outlets, including Billmoyers.com and Commondreams.org. A new book by two of our nation’s foremost poverty researchers, Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, reveals the desperate circumstances that hundreds of thousands of children and...
404 Error: Why Internet Access is Still a Problem for Many in Poverty
Originally posted on TalkPoverty.org When President Obama recently announced the ConnectHome initiative in the auditorium of Oklahoma’s Durant High School, he again stated that the Internet is a necessity, not a luxury. No kidding, Mr. President. This isn’t news to...