By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
Click here to receive the Daily Digest via email.
We Built This Country on Inequality (The Nation)
Mychal Denzel Smith writes that the U.S. economy was built on a foundation of inequality for women and racial minorities, and that we must fight racism and sexism if we hope to close the wealth gap.
Oklahoma Governor Signs Law Barring Cities From Raising Minimum Wage (AJAM)
The Oklahoma law also bars cities from requiring paid sick leave or vacation time, reports Amel Ahmed. This seems intended to preempt a push for a state-level minimum wage increase, as in California and Maryland.
Treat Wage Theft as a Criminal Offense (WaPo)
Catherine Rampell asks why the consequences for stealing thousands from workers' paychecks are so much less severe than the consequences of stealing from someone's home.
Obamacare Succeeded for One Simple Reason: It's Horrible to be Uninsured (Vox)
Sarah Kliff says the eight million sign-ups are proof that insured pundits didn't understand how desperate the uninsured and underinsured were to get health insurance.
Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (Robert Reich)
Robert Reich suggests that today's concentrated wealth resembles the Gilded Age, right down to the need to break up too-large corporations. He cites the pending Comcast-Time Warner merger as a troubling example.
New on Next New Deal
Not Just the Long-Term Unemployed: Those Unemployed Zero Weeks Are Struggling to Find Jobs
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal looks at the data on those who move from one employer directly to another, without any unemployment. When even those workers struggle on the job market, wage growth slows.