#Obama learning on the job full

Seventy-three percent of the lowest wage private-sector workers lack a single paid sick day, and 96% do not have paid family leave through their employers. To remedy these problems, policymakers could enact laws to require minimum reporting pay and advance notice of worker schedules, allowing people to plan their lives and meet family responsibilities. These employment practices are also more likely to affect low-wage workers who lack the leverage to push for better wages and hours, which leaves them facing job and income insecurity and a higher likelihood of falling into poverty. That makes it nearly impossible for working parents to find child care, know whether they are going to get the hours they need, or coordinate schedules between multiple jobs. Irregular work scheduling denies workers any dependability in their schedule or pay. In addition, the Obama DOL applied the minimum wage and overtime regulations to the home health care industry, whose almost 2 million care workers are generally women of color and immigrants earning wages at or below the poverty line. Under Obama, the Department of Labor (DOL) implemented contracting regulations that include not only a higher minimum wage, but also address wage theft, on-the-job health and safety hazards, sexual harassment, race discrimination, and wage transparency. Stronger enforcement of labor standards that guard against wage theft, and updates to outdated standards-such as increasing the overtime threshold and eliminating the tipped minimum wage-would especially benefit low-income workers. Stolen pay can add up quickly for low-wage employees, and it can make the difference between making rent or facing eviction.

Workers lose tens of billions of dollars a year due to wage theft, when employers fail to pay minimum wage, overtime, payroll taxes, or worker’s compensation premiums. However, given how opposed Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary is to even a modest increase, it’s unlikely that the new administration will take this action on behalf of workers. The rest of the country is long overdue for a raise too, and Trump has- at times-promised to give it to them. Some individual states also raised their minimum wages, which is correlated with faster wage growth for low-wage workers. He raised the minimum wage to $10.10 for all federal contractors, many of whom work at poverty-level wages. For people who rely on the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour-disproportionately women and people of color-the struggle can be even harder.Ĭongress has failed to raise the federal minimum wage for seven years, so Obama relied on executive action when he could.

Full-time, year-round minimum wage workers don’t make enough to support a single person, much less a family. The problem is that their wages are too low. Raise the Minimum Wageĭespite what some policymakers and pundits suggest, a significant share of poor people already work-and their wages and benefits from that work are their main source of income. It should also take steps-some of which were taken by President Obama-to make sure these jobs make it possible for people to support themselves.

#Obama learning on the job full

It should work with the Federal Reserve to prioritize full employment, and make sure that we get there by keeping interest rates low until there is consistently strong wage growth. If the next administration genuinely wants to create decent jobs, it will need to do much more than strike piecemeal deals with individual companies. Along with a strong safety net, decent jobs and wages for low-income people and their families is one of the most effective methods of reducing poverty. There are still too few jobs, too few hours, and too slow wage growth for millions of people who are willing and able to work. Income rose for the typical American household, and the poverty rate saw one of the largest single-year declines in almost 50 years-primarily due to improvements in the labor market.Īs steady as the recovery has been, the United States has not yet reached a full employment economy. In 2015, most Americans finally started to feel the benefits of the recovery.