For more information, read Jessica Goodheart’s story on squeezed Los Angeles tenants, “The Rent’s Getting Too Damn High!”
Since 1983 six inmate firefighters have died while working on fire containment. Today they are paid $2 per day — and an extra $1 when fighting active fires.
Co-published by MapLight and Fast Company
Under Republican governors, two states pumped hundreds of millions of dollars of pension cash into a high-risk hedge fund that took control of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc.
A local dispute over evictions highlights the emergence of a tenants movement that is pushing back against rapacious landlords and a nationwide housing affordability crisis.
The displacement of renters by large-scale operators who turn apartment buildings into de facto hotels has hit urban areas like Greater Los Angeles hard.
Food deserts and food swamps have limited poor people’s ability to obtain fresh produce. Allowing SNAP use at farmers markets ensures that the markets are accessible to low-income people and are not the sole domain of the rich and well-off suburbanites.
Co-published by Splinter
The Treasury Department not only sided with banking lobbyists’ definition of “financial services,” but its new rule’s fine print echoed their interpretations of the 2017 federal tax law.
Co-published by Newsweek
When the DeVoses’ 164-foot yacht was untied from a Huron, Ohio dock, it was flying a flag of the Cayman Islands.
Non-disclosure agreements have become a target for #MeToo advocates, since they bar women from discussing their stories of workplace sexual harassment. Proposed California legislation could change that.
The recent media spotlight on sexual harassment in Sacramento and Hollywood has created an opportunity to address the plight of low-wage workers.
Co-published by Fast Company
In Robert Jimenez’s day, California was second only to Michigan in auto manufacturing, and homeownership was a much more attainable aspiration. “We are what’s left of the middle class,” he says.
Amazon’s continuous resistance to collecting sales taxes made it the first major American company to build its business based on tax avoidance. Contrary to popular belief, the company is still resisting today.
Alissa Quart’s new book examines the plights of women and men whose jobs have been devalued by the evolving American economy.
Co-published by The American Prospect
In the wake of the Janus ruling, well-funded right-to-work groups are preparing digital and door-to-door campaigns aimed at California’s public-sector workers.
According to Seattle University law professor Charlotte Garden, today’s Supreme Court decision won’t be the end of the legal assault on the public-sector labor movement.
Led by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, the five-member majority issued a decision that is the culmination of a multi-year effort that has its roots in right-wing judicial organizations, foundations and think tanks.
California’s housing shortage has made it difficult to be middle class and harder to be poor. Today’s median-priced California home costs more than twice the median-priced U.S. home, according to Zillow.
Set in a Detroit automobile outfitting plant, Dominique Morisseau’s drama grabs you from the start with its focus on blue-collar men and women, and their struggle for dignity and self-respect.
On the latest episode of “The Bottom Line” podcast, CEO Kat Taylor lays out her strategy for proving that a bank can be profitable, pay its employees well, and pursue an agenda of economic justice and planetary health.
A new report from United Ways of California shows that 1 in 3 working families struggle to make ends meet.
On the latest episode of “The Bottom Line” podcast, Deloitte Consulting’s Erica Volini explains what’s behind what the firm calls “the rise of the social enterprise.”
The influx of migrant agricultural workers brought to the U.S. on temporary visas means increased competition for resident laborers – and less bargaining power.
Many migrant workers in California on H-2A temporary agricultural visas are forced to contend with unsafe working conditions, wage theft and other labor law violations.
The stacking of the U.S. Supreme Court with anti-union justices has allowed the right-to-work movement to circumvent, and undercut, pro-union state policies.
Only about one percent of Los Angeles County’s homeless are able to have full-time jobs, says a report prepared by the Economic Roundtable.
For homeless workers, earning a paycheck can take second place to finding a safe place to sleep at night.
Daycare and home care-giving “are a public good and need to be treated as a public good,” says Ken Jacobs, chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
The Seattle maverick, who has pushed for a slate of progressive policies while warning his “fellow zillionaires” that the pitchforks are coming, explains on “The Bottom Line” podcast that his dad helped to shape his values.
With rates roughly equal to rideshare services like Lyft and Uber, BlueLA appears unlikely to make a significant dent in Angelenos’ travel habits anytime soon.
A new book argues that the dismantling of policy initiatives that made up the Golden State’s successful postwar social compact were, in part, driven by racial fears as state demographics shifted.