By Rachel Goldfarb, originally posted on Next New Deal
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“This was really eye-opening for me”: Fed’s Raskin Shocked at Low Quality of Work at Local Job Fair (Reuters)
Pedro da Costa notes that Sarah Bloom Raskin's comments at A Bold Approach to the Jobs Emergency on June 4th were surprisingly personal. Raskin's trip to the job fair helped her to understand just how difficult things are in today's job market.
Minimum Wage: Catching up to Productivity (Democracy)
John Schmitt suggests plans to increase the minimum wage so that low-wage workers get a piece of the pie from our massive productivity gains. Linking the minimum wage to CPI isn’t the solution, because that would just maintain the status quo.
- Roosevelt Take: Watch John with Brink Lindsey, Ai-jen Poo, and Roosevelt Institute CEO and President Felicia Wong on the panel "Is Education the Answer?" at A Bold Approach to the Jobs Emergency.
Dems Rebrand Minimum Wage, Sick Leave As Women's Issues To Pressure GOP (HuffPo)
Laura Bassett and Dave Jamieson see these efforts as an intentional push against the GOP, since the Democrats have such large margins with women voters. By making economic issues into gender issues, they are already in the lead for voter approval.
Florida’s Governor Signs Business-Backed Bill Banning Paid Sick Leave (ThinkProgress)
Bryce Covert reports that Rick Scott has signed a bill that bans local governments from implementing paid sick leave legislation. Apparently Floridians are best served by bringing their infectious diseases to work.
Walmart Bill Vote Bumped to Next Week; Cue the Lobbyists (Washington City Paper)
Aaron Wiener writes on a D.C. City Council bill that would require large retailers whose workers are not unionized to pay a living wage of $12.50 per hour. Unsurprisingly, a Walmart spokesman doesn't like the exemption for organized labor.
Volunteering Lifts Job Prospects of the Jobless (WaPo)
Michael Fletcher reports on a federal study that provides data for something many have assumed: volunteering increases an unemployed person's chance of finding a job by 27%. For those without high school diplomas, who really struggle to find work, the effect is even greater.
The Current U.S. Economy: Text and Subtext (NYT)
Jared Bernstein thinks that the relatively positive IMF assessment of the U.S. economy requires annotation, which reveals the underlying struggles of the middle and lower classes and the problems with our current economic policy.
Will the Robots Steal Your Paycheck? BREAKING: They Already Have (The Atlantic)
Jordan Weissmann examines a study that shows that in countries where the cost of doing business has dropped, worker share of GDP fell as well. He argues that we need to consider how this change affects workers who are being replaced by technology.