 |
|
|
|||||
Where legislatures have refused to boost pay and benefits for workers, advocates have often taken the fight straight to voters. In recent years, voters in Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska overwhelmingly backed higher state minimum wages and guaranteed paid sick leave at the polls. But despite that strong showing of support, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now trying to water down or even roll back the measures their constituents approved. In November, 58% of Missouri voters approved Proposition A, which raises the state minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and requires employers to provide paid sick leave. That level of support, said Missouri Jobs with Justice Policy Director Richard Von Glahn, stems from the fact that the measure speaks to the experiences that voters have in their lives and where the economy is not working for them. Typically, when his organization was out gathering signatures, voters expressed surprise that the minimum wage was not already $15 an hour and that paid sick leave was not already a guarantee. The vote shows it was the clear will of what voters want, Von Glahn said. But in March, the Missouri House passed legislation repealing the paid sick leave measure and undoing the states decades-long practice of regularly updating the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. If the bill becomes law, wage increases will cease in January 2027. To justify such changes, Republican state Representative Mitch Boggs said, Of course the people voted for it. It would be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook. Theyre going to vote for it every time. Republican state Representative Scott Miller put it another way: Just because 57% of the people that voted that day voted in favor of something, that doesnt make it right. Theyre taking away the choice of businesses to engage in [the] free market. Its not just lawmakers trying to undo the will of the voters, however. A group of businesses and individuals have asked the state Supreme Court to strike down the measure entirely, arguing that it violates the state Constitutions single subject requirement. In their lawsuit they claim that wages and paid sick time are separate issues that should not have been combined in a single measure. Von Glahn pushed back on that argument: Wages for hours worked and wages for paid sick time, thats part of total compensation. As a working person, if I have money in my check, do I care if its from paid sick days or from hours that I worked? Nebraska voters passed their own paid sick leave ballot measure by a staggering 74% this past November. A majority of voters in every legislative district supported it, and the support was higher than for the lawmakers themselves. Thats not the only measure state lawmakers want to change, however. In 2022, nearly 59% of voters approved a measure that will raise the states minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and keep increasing it in later years to keep up with inflation. Nebraskans really care about their neighbors, Jo Giles, executive director of the Womens Fund of Omaha, said of the support both measures received. Paid sick leave, she said, is a common sense solution. As in Missouri, many voters she spoke to while gathering signatures were surprised it wasnt already guaranteed. And yet efforts to get lawmakers to take action themselves had not succeeded. We tried for many years, Giles said, including during the height of the pandemic when workers were getting sick by the thousands. But bills never moved forward. After many, many attempts, we determined, Okay, were not going to get it through the Legislature, so lets ask the people what they want, Giles said. It was pretty clear what the people wanted: They wanted paid sick leave, they wanted to increase the minimum wage. That hasnt stopped Nebraska lawmakers from seeking to change the measures approved by their constituents. Last year, two state lawmakers introduced bills to exempt young workers from the higher wage. The Nebraska Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but one of the lawmakers was aligned with Democrats and the other with Republicans. The effort failed to advance in the Legislature. This session, those two lawmakers and others are seeking to weaken both the minimum wage and sick leave policies. Legislative Bill 698, introduced by a Republican-aligned senator, would exempt companies with 10 or fewer employees from the paid sick leave requirement. Yet the measure voters passed already makes an allowance for small businesses by allowing those with 20 or fewer employees to provide their workers with fewer days of leave. The bill would also exempt agricultural workers and those under 16 while eliminating employees right to sue their employers if they arent given the leave theyre owed. Giles argued that these changes gut the core aspects of the initiative. Another bill introduced this year, Legislative Bill 258, meanwhile, would allow employers to pay people younger than 19 a lower minimum wage and would eliminate future minimum wage increases. Beyond the impact on workers themselves, Giles believes lawmakers actions could harm the entire state. What does that mean for our overall democracy if people cannot exercise their voice and implement policies that are popular? she said. Residents votes should be honored. In both Missouri and Nebraska, conservative lawmakers have led the charge to roll back ballot measures. In Michigan, Democrats have joined the effort. Back in 2012, Mothering Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for issues impacting women of color, started pushing for a paid sick leave bill in the state Legislature, but Republicans stood in the way. It became clear that if we wanted to get this done, we would have to go straight to voters, said Danielle Atkinson, the nonprofits founder. Her group was poised to do so, submitting more than 280,000 signatures to put both paid sick leave and a higher minimum wage on the ballot in 2018. There was always overwhelming support from voters, she said, because it was extremely popular and needed. But then the Republican-controlled Legislature stepped in that September. Over united Democratic opposition in the state Senate but with some Democratic support in the state House, lawmakers passed legislation to raise the minimum wage and institute a paid sick leave requirement before voters had the chance to weigh in. That wasnt because lawmakers agreed with the ballot measures; they did so explicitly to come back and gut both measures later on, something that would have been much harder had the issues passed by ballot measure. State Senate Republican Majority Leader Arlan B. Meekhof explained the vote this way: The Senate adopted the policy to preserve the ability for this Legislature and future legislatures to amend the statute to better fit our state and our economy. And lawmakers did in fact later amend the legislation by voting to delay the minimum wage increase by nearly a decade, scrap future inflation adjustments and preserve a lower tipped minimum wage. Lawmakers also exempted employers with fewer than 50 employees from paid sick leave and scaled it back for everyone else. The groups behind the ballot measures fought back in the courts, arguing that what lawmakers did violated the state Constitution. That took time, energy, and a considerable amount of resources, Atkinson said. But we thought it was important to fight for the will of the people and direct democracy. Last summer, it seemed they had finally won: The state supreme court found the Legislature had indeed violated the state Constitution and reinstated the original wage and sick leave measures. The new benefits were set to go into effect on February 21. We were extremely hopeful, Atkinson said. We were like, Great, on to the next fight. But the Legislature wasnt done intervening. An hour before midnight on February 20, lawmakers passed bills to preserve a lower tipped minimum wage, delay implementation of paid sick leave, exempt young and temporary seasonal workers, reduce guaranteed unpaid time off for employees of small businesses, and strip workers of the right to sue employers for violating the new rights. This time, nearly half of Democrats in both chambers joined with all Republicans to pass the measures, and Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed them into law. The governor had heard concerns about implementation of the new law, according to a statement from spokesperson Stacey LaRouche, while the bill was under consideration, and supported a bipartisan deal that protects servers and wait staff, while also providing certainty to small businesses and helping Michigan remain competitive. Business groups, particularly the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, had lobbied hard for the tipped minimum wage changes. It was very clear that lawmakers of both parties were being influenced by the business community, Atkinson said. The restaurant industry did a very good job of manufacturing outrage. Atkinson is frustrated that those tactics succeeded. Michigan is a place where were known for workers rights, and we had an opportunity to be a pretty big part of a larger movement to eliminate a sub-minimum wage, and we missed it, she noted, referring to the lower wage employers can pay tipped employees. Having Democrats join in was even worse. When you see Democrats introducing legislation thats undermining workers rights, it makes . . . an easier target for Republicans to do the same, she said. Its really unfortunate that that came from members of a party that claims to be for workers rights. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Category:
E-Commerce
There are a lot of issues President Trump could be worried about right now, from dealing with the repercussions of his global tariff war to investigating why his administration’s war plans were direct messaged to a journalist. Instead, hes preoccupied with your showerhead. Thats right: On Wednesday, just after announcing that the U.S. would levy a head-turning 125% tariff on all Chinese imports, Trump was busy signing an executive order about showerheads. The order, called Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads, details Trumps plan to make showers great again (a point emphasized by Trumps right-hand man, Elon Musk, on X) and restore shower freedom. I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair, Trump told reporters yesterday in the Oval Office. I stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. Its ridiculous. Shower pressure is an issue thats been top of mind for Trump since his first administration, and hes commented on it several times over the years. According to a press release, the new executive order is aimed at undoing the lefts war on water pressure which involved a radical green agenda. This bizarre and poorly timed detour for the Trump administration begs the question: How much control does the federal government actually have over your showerhead? What has the government been doing with my showerhead? The federal government cant actually dictate how individual companies design their showerheads. It can, however, issue regulations on water pressure to curb energy waste. The most overarching ruling to that end was passed by Congress in 1992. The Energy Policy Act was a wide-reaching set of federal laws for improved energy efficiency, which also included new guidelines for electric utilities, industrial facilities, and even enacted some energy-saving protocols for the postal service. Among all of these guidelines was a new standard: The maximum water use allowed for any showerhead manufactured after January 1, 1994, is 2.5 gallons per minute. The 2.5 gallon per minute limit (which, by experts standards, is quite a lot of water), still stands today, and 14 states have adopted their own guidelines which save even more water. [In 1992], as now, many parts of the country faced water supply crunches driven by population growth and, in some places, drought, says Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). At the same time, water and wastewater rates and bills were increasing. Setting these standards helped ease these problems. But DeLaski says the 2.5 gallon per minute regulation doesnt actually have much to do with water pressure. The federal standard is a performance standardit does not dictate showerhead design or water pressure, he says. Instead, manufacturers ensure good water pressure by including something called a pressure compensating valve in their showerheads, and thats what customers should look for if theyre having a lackluster showering experience. Both Wirecutter and Consumer Reports have published instructive, up-to-date lists of showerheads that give the best spray for your buck. Generally, chronic poor water pressure tends to be a symptom of a plumbing problem or build-up on the showerhead. The great nozzle debacle Despite the fact that its perfectly possible to bask under a strong water stream without upping the 2.5 gallon per minute limit, Trump seems set on finding a loophole that will allow him to bathe his beautiful hair in countless gallons per minute. His executive order isnt actually rolling back the existing guidelines, but it is essentially bending the rules to permit an extra gluttonous shower. The workaround has everything to do with nozzles. As previously mentioned, the 2.5 gallon rule has been in place for more than three decades. However, new stipulations have been added since then. In the mid-2010s, showers with multiple nozzles started to gain popularity, leading the Obama administration to establish a new definition of showerhead that defined a multi-nozzle shower as possessing only one showerhead, rather than allowing each nozzle to use 2.5 gallons of water per minute. In 2020, during his first term, Trump parried Obamas amendment with one of his own, defining each nozzle as a separate showerhead so that, theoretically, a shower with three nozzles could douse the user with 7.5 gallons per minute. Trumps edit came complete with a diagram of potential multi-nozzle shower designs, which seems like the kind of thing that only a billionaire could dream up. When Biden took office, he reinstated the Obama administrations showerhead definitiononly for Trump to rescind it once again this week. Trumps executive order on Wednesday essentially reinstates his 2020 2.5 gallons-per-nozzle definition. Showerheads seem to be a pet peeve of President Trumphe keeps bringing them up, DeLaski says. But his concerns are outdatedwhile there were problems with showerheads sold in the 1990s, those problems have long since been solved by manufacturers’ modern designs. Trumps concerns are so outdated, in fact, that ASAP asnt come across any companies which have tried to capitalize on the nozzle loophole. While Trump can technically alter the federal definition of a showerhead, it’s unlikely that your shower experience is going to change materially any time soon. We’re not aware of any manufacturer that took advantage of the loophole during the first Trump term, which makes sense since they are not having trouble making excellent showerheads that meet and beat the standard, DeLaski says. They also still need to comply with the state standards. That said, there are dozens of manufacturers of showerheads and it seems likely that some manufacturer or importer will seek to exploit the loopholeand some consumers will get stuck with needlessly wasteful products that drive up their utility bills.
Category:
E-Commerce
Calling this a chaotic week on Wall Street might be underselling the situation. We’ve seen drops of more than 2,000 points in the Dow and then gains of even more. In the past five days, the Dow has swung almost 3,300 points. That volatility has pushed more than a dozen companies to shelve their IPO plans, including some of the years most-highly anticipated debuts. StubHub and Klarna, both of which have already filed their prospectuses with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have delayed their plans. Fintech company Chime, which reportedly was on the verge of revealing its SEC filing, changed its mind at the last minute last week. Mergers and acquisitions? Things arent much better there. The first quarter of this year saw fewer than 80 M&A announcementsthe lowest quarterly total since Q2 2020and things arent looking much sunnier for Q2. But its not just Donald Trumps tariffsor the global responsethat’s spooking markets. The real problem is the complete lack of predictability about what happens next. What will the U.S. reciprocal tariff ratemost of which Trump paused on Wednesday for 90 daysend up being for affected countries? Will the disruption be temporary, or will Trump keep these in place for the rest of his term? How will all of this ripple through global supply chains? There are, unfortunately, no hard answers to any of these questions. The Venture Capital conundrum That’s not only making it confusing for consumers, economists, and business owners, it’s making startup owners worry about their odds of finding venture capital funding. That’s understandable, but it’s worth remembering that the disorder surrounding tariffs and the market has been going on for just one weekand that’s hardly enough time to have any real impact on the funding space. Still, venture firms that back companies approaching an IPO or exit are the most likely to feel the squeeze, investors say. “Investors are trying to figure out ‘how is this going to shake out?'” says Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures. “I think that has a bigger impact for the later versus the early stage market. Your valuations are higher and you’re betting on the P&L and the financials of the company; whereas early on, you’re betting on product, team, and market.” Many of Menlos portfolio companies are digital-basedmeaning tariffs, as currently structured, wont directly affect them since they dont sell physical goods. The bigger worry is whether potential customers will hoard cash and delay or skip new software purchases altogether. “It’s not the direct impact of the tariffs [for them], it’s the indirect,” says Murphy. And looming over all this, of course, is the threat of a recession. Moody’s economist Mark Zandi is still pegging the odds of a recession this year at 60%, even with Trumps 90-day tariff pause. Users of the prediction market Kalshi put the odds even higher, at 70%up from just 40% a week ago. JPMorgan says the Russell 2000 Index is now pricing in a 79% chance of an economic downturn. A recession would not only impact consumers, it would also potentially dampen investments, again because businesses would have a harder time selling their product. It would not, however, be devastating for funding companies, says Murphy. “Ultimately, we’ll figure out some new equilibrium around these tariffs,” he says. “Venture will find its normal footing, and the value and impact of the technology will trump [a possible] recession.”
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||