labor

The U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, March 27, 2022 (Marisa Demarco/Source New Mexico)

Millions more workers would receive overtime pay under proposed Biden administration rule

BY: - September 7, 2023

Salaried workers who have been ineligible for overtime pay would benefit from a proposed Biden administration regulation. The Department of Labor’s new rule would require employers compensate full-time workers in management, administrative, or other professional roles for any overtime worked if they make less than $55,068 annually. Currently, the salary threshold is $35,568. The change […]

A person walks past a "Join our team today!" sign posted at a UPS store on Feb. 2, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Job growth exceeds economists’ expectations as unemployment inches up

BY: - September 3, 2023

The labor market is stable and healthy, economists and policy experts say, although the unemployment rate ticked up in the month of August. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report released Friday showed that unemployment rose to 3.8% in August from 3.5% in July. Meanwhile the economy added 187,000 jobs, above expectations of 170,000 jobs from […]

Starbucks union proposal arises as state’s rate of organized labor hits historic low

BY: - July 2, 2023

If Starbucks workers in Aberdeen succeed in unionizing, they’ll achieve a rare victory in a state where the share of unionized workers has fallen to a historic low of less than 5%. Some workers at the Aberdeen location say long hours and understaffed shifts pushed them to organize.  “In the time that each of us […]

A company advertises a help wanted sign on April 9, 2021, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

States see record low unemployment across the US

BY: - May 25, 2023

Across much of the country, the jobs market is as strong as it’s ever been, and Black women, young people and people with disabilities are among the workers benefiting, recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. Twenty states reported an unemployment rate under 3% in April, while 15 states saw record lows, led by […]

Two young boys stand on electric looms in order to reach the top shelf while at work in a cotton mill in Georgia. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Kids at work: States try to ease child labor laws at behest of industry

BY: - April 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in 11 states have either passed or introduced laws to roll back child labor laws — a push that’s come from industry trade organizations and mostly conservative legislators as businesses scramble for low-wage workers.  In the past two years, those states have moved to extend working hours for children, eliminate work permit […]

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders conducts a U.S. Senate hearing March 29, 2023. (Committee video screenshot)

Bernie Sanders confronts former Starbucks CEO over union-busting allegations

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators at a hearing on Wednesday grilled the former CEO of Starbucks over allegations that the giant coffee company intimidated, harassed and fired workers who tried to form unions. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and former presidential candidate who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, focused on Starbucks’ […]

Laura Pierre joins with others to protest in support of a $15 an hour minimum wage in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2015. The state's minimum wage will increase to $12 an hour in September 2023, and then increase by $1 per year until reaching $15 an hour in 2026. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Child poverty rates highest in states that haven’t raised minimum wage

BY: - December 23, 2022

Of the 20 states that have failed to raise the minimum wage above the federal $7.25 an hour standard, 16 have more than 12% of their children living in poverty, according to a States Newsroom analysis of wage and poverty data. Anti-poverty advocates say that’s a sign that there’s an urgent need for lawmakers to […]

Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Feds recover $280,000 in back wages and damages from Hibachi Grill

BY: - December 15, 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $279,070 from a Sioux Falls buffet restaurant that paid kitchen workers a flat monthly salary and denied them overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek, the department announced Thursday in a news release. An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Hibachi Grill & Supreme […]

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

U.S. House votes to avert calamitous rail strike, but Senate prospects murky

BY: - November 30, 2022

The U.S. House moved Wednesday to avoid an economically disastrous nationwide rail strike, voting to codify an agreement that members of some unions had already rejected and separately add paid sick leave that workers had demanded. The two-track approach allows Democrats to avert a strike that could cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion […]

The Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

U.S. House to intervene in rail workers strike, heeding Biden call

BY: - November 29, 2022

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said the House will take up legislation to ratify an agreement between rail workers and operators in order to avert a nationwide rail strike. “This week, the House will take up a bill adopting the Tentative Agreement — with no poison pills or changes to the […]

Minneapolis Fed President: let immigration meet labor demand to boost economy

BY: - November 10, 2022

A steady stream of immigrants will be important to the funding future of entitlement programs in the U.S. and for the health of the economy as a whole, the president of the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis told an audience in Brookings this week. President Neel Kashkari shared those insights at South Dakota State University on […]