Should government agencies use the best information possible? For more than 80 years, the Labor Department has answered that question in the negative. The Davis–Bacon Act (DBA) of 1931 requires federal construction contractors to pay their workers at least the “prevailing wage” in their locality. The Act charges the Labor …
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis resigned on January 22. It would be beneficial if President Obama’s next Labor Secretary would do more to protect workers from union corruption. An Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit released last year finds that the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) is missing most violations …
Conservatives won an enormous victory in Michigan last week. The state just passed a right-to-work law that makes union dues voluntary. Starting next year, union contracts cannot require employers to fire employees who do not pay union dues. The state that gave birth to the United Auto Workers union has …
The November employment report appeared to be good news. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest level since 2009, and the economy created 146,000 jobs. However, a closer reading of the details shows that the labor market is not recovering any faster but instead continuing its long, painful …
All signs now point toward Michigan becoming America’s 24th right-to-work state by year’s end. This is good news for Michigan’s union members and unemployed. Michigan has suffered more than most states in the recession. The state still has an unemployment rate one-and-a-half percentage points above the national average. The state …
Would spending more money on unemployment benefits create jobs? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) thinks so. According to a new CBO report, extending the current 73 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits would lead employers to create 300,000 new jobs. This seems highly implausible. Economists widely agree that UI causes …
Enjoy Twinkies while you still can. Hostess Brands just went bankrupt. This morning the company announced that it will suspend operations and lay off more than 18,000 employees. The Bakery International Union put them out of business. Hostess has struggled financially for years. The company tried to stay competitive by …
In January, the Washington Taxicab Commission welcomed Uber, a smartphone-based car service, to the District with a sting operation. The charge: operating without a chauffer’s license. Uber won that fight, but its future in Washington remains uncertain. Uber lets users hail a limousine from their smartphones. A customer loads his …
When a questioner at Tuesday’s presidential debate stated that women make only 72 cents for every dollar that men make, both President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney agreed. Not so fast. This figure is highly misleading. The statistic comes from a Census Bureau report (see figure 2 here) comparing the …
