In November, the House Education & Workforce Committee quietly passed yet another version of the so-called “Working Families Flexibility Act” out of committee with a party-line vote. But will this benevolent-sounding bill actually help workers? Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), our most fundamental labor protections law, most workers are entitled to overtime pay—pay …
Tag Archives: Workers’ rights
U.S. House of Representatives votes to restore collective bargaining rights in rare bipartisan rebuke to Trump
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives took one of their first genuinely pro-worker actions of the year. 🎉 The House voted 231–195 to pass the Protecting America’s Workforce Act (PAWA) to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers.
Trump’s latest attack on the public sector grants himself unilateral power to fire federal workers
By: Chris Owens and Samantha Sanders From day one, the Trump administration and Elon Musk have unleashed an unprecedented assault on the federal workforce. Recently, this has included announcing intentions to cut 15% of U.S.-based State Department staff, 10,000 jobs in the nation’s health care agencies, 80,000 Veterans Affairs positions, 7,000 in the Social Security …
A pro-worker majority is at stake in Wisconsin’s upcoming Supreme Court election
The April 1 election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, pitting Judge Susan Crawford against Judge Brad Schimel, will have serious consequences for the state’s working families. Judge Crawford has demonstrated support of policies that raise workers’ wages and protect workers’ rights, while Judge Schimel supports policies that have demonstrably hurt Wisconsin workers and their families. …
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Trump’s Project 2025 would put over 20 million workers at risk of wage theft and lower pay
By: David Cooper, Dave Kamper, and Sebastian Martinez Hickey The Republican Party has long opposed raising the federal minimum wage, and some even call for its repeal. Donald Trump’s Project 2025 proposes a new scheme to cut wages for the nation’s lowest-paid workers: allow states to opt out of federal wage and hour laws entirely, …
The Biden-Harris administration has boosted the multiracial working class
The share of workers earning at least $17 an hour jumped from 63% to 79% between 2019 and 2023 When people talk about “the working class,” they often invoke the image of a white man in a blue-collar job and stop there. In reality, the working class looks a lot like the overall U.S. population—it …
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Project 2025 would strip federal overtime protections from at least 8 million workers
“The overtime provisions in Project 2025 comprise a profoundly anti-overtime agenda that will mean millions will be working more for less.” See the impact by state and demographics U.S. law requires that most workers receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. This is a fundamental employment standard that helps …
Biden and Trump’s record on supporting workers’ right to join unions
How the Biden administration has restored and strengthened workers’ rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining compared to the Trump administration.