An Overdue Fix to Overtime

An Overdue Fix to Overtime

There are a lot of ways that businesses are squeezing worker pay. Here’s a big one. On the one hand, millions of Americans are stuck in low-paying part-time jobs that don’t offer them enough hours. On the other, millions more are now routinely forced to work...
Fueling Corporate Welfare

Fueling Corporate Welfare

Getting something for nothing is a pretty sweet deal — at least if you’re the one getting something. Not so much if you’re the one receiving nothing in exchange. Oil and gas companies are extracting gas from federal lands and paying nothing for much of it, according...
Too Big to Ignore

Too Big to Ignore

Three years after the Occupy movement first directed long-overdue attention to the scourge of inequality in America, the gulf between rich and poor has gotten too big for even the Federal Reserve to ignore. As Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen recently pointed out,...
Obama: Don’t Sell Out America’s Women

Obama: Don’t Sell Out America’s Women

President Barack Obama has insisted up and down that he’s willing to work with the Republicans who are taking over the Senate. He proved it during his recent visit to Beijing, where he urged world leaders to come to agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Show Up on Thanksgiving or Get Fired

Show Up on Thanksgiving or Get Fired

Most Americans — from the Obama family in the White House to my little family in Texas — will get a much-deserved break from work on Thanksgiving Day. But millions of others won’t. Understandably, firefighters, police, and hospital workers will stay on the job....
Does This Definition Make Me Look Rich?

Does This Definition Make Me Look Rich?

How much income do America’s households take in? How much do they have left after taxes? Do federal taxes leave the nation less or more unequal? Questions don’t get much more basic than these. Or more complicated. How, for instance, do we define income? Anything...