Thousands of companies in New York City will now be required to provide paid sick days for employees, thanks to a legislative compromise cobbled together between labor unions and the city council. The deal was partially made possible from a caving-in of City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, who was the leading opponent of paid sick [...]
Despite women being a formidable voting bloc in the 2012 presidential election, pay equity policies have yet to reflect the influence women have gained. Today, women earn just under 80 cents on the dollar when compared to men, a gap that eventually causes a loss of about $380,000 over a woman’s career. This year’s upcoming [...]
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s bestselling new book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will To Lead, has already made plenty of waves and sparked much discussion, as has her nonprofit Lean In Foundation, which will provide training, resources and support for women to achieve their professional goals, and encourages women to form “Lean In circles,” [...]
Portland, OR, joined a small but growing club of progressive cities who are mandating paid sick leave for employees when its city council unanimously passed an Earned Sick Time policy last week. The new law will allow more than 120,000 workers to earn up to five sick days a year, giving employees one hour of [...]
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will To Lead, has come out accompanied by a blizzard of discussion, even among those who haven’t read it. I did read it, and found it to be a thoughtful, heavily researched and detailed book that will no doubt inspire countless young women [...]
This International Women’s Day, women harvesters of our nation’s tomato crops will be five days into a 200-mile trek across Florida that will end March 17. With its emphasis on human rights and social responsibility in the produce industry, the march is another leg of the longer journey to eradicate poverty wages, sexual harassment and [...]
As 2012 draws to a close, I find myself haunted by the ghosts of Nobel Prizes past. Erik Axel Karlfeldt won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1931; Dag Hammarskjöld won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961; William Vickrey won the 1996 Nobel in Economic Science and, just a year ago, Ralph Steinman was awarded [...]
Amid fervent protests and desperate pleading, the Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday that will drastically weaken public unions in a state once known for the strength of its organized labor force. Hours after passing the House, two “right to work” bills, which ban a requirement that nonunion employees pay union fees, were signed [...]
Seventy-one years ago, America’s children learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Before the attack, few had every heard of Pearl Harbor. “Who’s she?” more than one child probably asked. Just as 9/11 was a watershed for the millennium generation, Pearl Harbor divided our parents’ childhoods into before and after. Born during the Great Depression, [...]
When white America sneezes, black America usually gets the flu. In a still sputtering economy, employment discrimination seems to be having a more blatant impact on African Americans, especially black women, who are trying to stay afloat in a cutthroat job market. This is why the unemployment rate for Americans overall is around eight percent, [...]
What We’re Reading