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Jobs & Careers blog
Work as a Calling, What Scripture and the Reformers Said About an Ordinary Job The idea that a plumber's or a clerk's work can be holy service is a great inheritance of the West and a quiet source of the American work ethic. Dirty Jobs and Honest Work, Why Pop Culture Rarely Celebrates the Trades Screens rarely show plumbers, welders and farmers as heroes, and that silence tells young people skilled work is a consolation prize. Respect makes workers. Seattle raised its minimum wage, and a city-funded study counted the hours The researchers Seattle paid to study its $15 wage found that cuts in hours outweighed the raise for low-wage workers. Here is the arithmetic and the fight. Asking Able-Bodied Adults to Work for Medicaid Is Not Cruelty, It Is Dignity The cruelty charge against Medicaid work requirements fails against the 1996 welfare law and the court record, though the paperwork critique is real. Seven Myths About Blue-Collar Work That Steer Young People Away From the Trades Seven claims that steer young people from the trades, tested against how licensing, apprenticeship and contractor ownership really work, with a verdict on each. From Kitchen Table to Open Sign, the First Steps of Starting a Small Business Ten plain steps from a skill and a customer to a legal, funded, properly booked small business, with the free help that exists to get you there. The 2009 stimulus promised unemployment under 8 percent, then came 10 The 2009 stimulus came with a forecast. The multiplier argument at its strongest, then the record: unemployment hit 10 percent and the projects were not ready. Eleven questions about recessions and who decides when one has started The two-quarter rule is a rule of thumb. A private committee makes the official call, months late. Eleven plain answers on how recessions are dated. The Spotted Owl Listing Emptied Timber Towns and Still Did Not Save the Owl A 1990 listing and a 1994 forest plan idled the mills of the Northwest, yet the owl kept declining, and the unthinned forests now feed the fires. Jobs Americans Won't Do Is an Argument About Wages, Not About Americans When an employer says Americans will not do a job, he is usually saying Americans will not do it at that price, and the price can change. Two Economists, One Boatlift, and the Fight Over Immigration and Wages Card said Mariel changed nothing for Miami's low-wage workers. Borjas said it hit them hard. Here is the story, the method fight and the fair verdict. The universal basic income idea keeps returning, and the evidence on work A guaranteed income sounds humane and simple. The big American experiments, Finland's trial and the arithmetic say otherwise, and so does the dignity of work. The minimum wage's 1938 birth and the workers it was meant to shut out Some early advocates openly wanted a wage floor to price the least productive out of work, and the 1938 law carried its cost to the same groups. Should the H-1B Lottery Give Way to Picking the Highest-Paid Offers First The H-1B visa is allocated by random draw, which favors volume filers over employers who value a worker most. A wage-ranked system is the better reform. Henry Ford's Five-Dollar Day and the Assembly Line That Built a Middle Class Ford turned the car into a worker's tool and then doubled pay to keep his workers, a lesson in productivity and wages with the stain on his record told plainly. Inflation hurts the poor most, and the arithmetic of a fixed paycheck Inflation is a tax nobody voted on, and it falls hardest on wage earners, retirees and savers. The arithmetic, worked out on a labelled $50,000 paycheck. The Employer Who Hires Off the Books Is Breaking the Law, Not Helping Illegal hiring is the magnet behind illegal immigration. The 1986 sanctions, 8 U.S.C. 1324a, and why enforcement should start with the employer, not the worker. How World War II Wage Controls Tied Your Health Insurance to Your Job Employer-based health insurance was an accident of wartime wage controls that the tax code froze in place, and it still costs workers when they change jobs. Lochner v. New York Divides Conservatives More Than Progressives Admit Lochner struck down a bakers' hours law, and conservatives still split over whether it was activism or a defence of the right to earn a living. The EITC began as a conservative idea and now pays out billions in error The Earned Income Tax Credit rewards work, which is why conservatives backed it, but its design yields one of the highest improper-payment rates in government. Benefit cliffs can make a raise cost a single mother real money When means-tested benefits phase out together, a low-wage worker can face a higher effective rate than a millionaire. A labelled example, CBO, and fixes. The marginal rate is the one that decides whether you work the extra shift Your average tax rate is a statistic; your marginal rate is a decision. How brackets really work, and why the next dollar's rate shapes work, saving and risk. In re Debs and the 1894 Pullman Strike That Made the Labor Injunction The Court unanimously upheld the injunction against Eugene Debs in 1895, and the case warns every conservative who likes emergency power in the right hands. PATCO 1981, the strike that ended with 11,000 controllers fired Reagan gave striking air traffic controllers 48 hours, then fired those who stayed out. The law behind it, the facts, and what it taught public unions. Should conservatives make peace with private-sector unions? Two views A newer right says unions can anchor families and towns; the older right says they protect insiders. Both cases, fairly stated, and a verdict. Janus v. AFSCME for Teachers, Eleven Questions About Union Fees Since Janus v. AFSCME no public school teacher can be forced to pay a union as a job condition. Eleven plain answers on dues, opt-outs and the contract. Davis-Bacon at ninety, the 1931 wage law that raises the price of a bridge The Davis-Bacon Act sets federal construction wages by survey, often at union scale, and its 1931 debate had a racial edge. What it costs and what it protects. Public-sector unions, and why FDR doubted they could bargain at all Franklin Roosevelt said bargaining could not be transplanted into government. Here is why he was right, and how the country drifted away from him. How Teacher Unions Won the Right to Bargain, and What FDR Warned About Even Franklin Roosevelt doubted that collective bargaining belonged in government. How public-sector unions rose, and why bargaining with electees differs. Cesar Chavez Fought Illegal Hiring, a Part of His Story Rarely Told The farmworker leader the left honors opposed employers who used unlawful labor to break his strikes, a fact that complicates the story usually told. Official Time Lets Federal Employees Do Union Work on the Taxpayer's Clock Federal law lets employees spend paid hours on union representation. Here is how official time works, what the statute allows, and the arguments on both sides. Even Franklin Roosevelt Thought Government Unions Had Limits Labor's own champions once held that bargaining against the government differed from bargaining against a company, and the record shows how far we moved. Vergara v. California, the Lawsuit That Put Teacher Tenure on Trial Nine students won a trial-court ruling against California's tenure and layoff laws, lost on appeal, and left behind a policy case that belongs in legislatures. What a Teachers Union Contract Says and Why Every Parent Should Read One A collective bargaining agreement shapes your child's school day more than most board votes, and it is a public document you can read for free. How a Teenager Finds a Registered Apprenticeship, Step by Step Apprenticeships are not advertised like colleges. A plain map for parents and teens: what registered means, where to look, how to apply and what to ask. Ending the Draft in 1973 Was a Conservative Idea, and It Worked Milton Friedman and the Gates Commission argued that conscription was a hidden tax on the young, and the all-volunteer force that replaced it proved them right. Four Years of Wages Versus Four Years of Debt, the Apprenticeship Math One teen spends four years earning a paycheck and a credential, another spends them borrowing. A labelled hypothetical shows the math and where a degree wins. North Carolina's dental board, teeth whitening and the Supreme Court When dentists on a state board shut out whitening rivals, the Supreme Court held in 2015 that such boards face antitrust law unless the state supervises them. Arizona's universal license recognition and the case for copying it Arizona's 2019 law honoring out-of-state occupational licenses lets workers move to opportunity, and the safety objection does not hold up. California's AB5 put freelancers out of work, and voters pushed back California reclassified millions of independent workers as employees in 2019, then spent two years issuing exemptions. The story of AB5 and Proposition 22. Booker T. Washington Built Tuskegee on the Dignity of Work and Ownership Born a slave in 1856, Washington built Tuskegee on skilled work and property. His record, his critics and his partner Rosenwald deserve a fair hearing. Creative destruction, why the buggy whip makers lost and America won Growth always destroys old jobs and firms, and shielding incumbents makes everyone poorer. Schumpeter's insight explains how a country gets richer. The Conservative Split Over Mandatory E-Verify, Argued From Both Sides Conservatives agree illegal hiring must stop but split on a national work-authorization mandate. Both cases get a hearing, then a verdict. German and Swiss Apprenticeships Compared With the American Path Germany and Switzerland pay teenagers to learn a trade with an employer, while America funnels most toward degrees. What compares, and what fits federalism. Madam C.J. Walker Built a Fortune From Hair Care, Hard Work and Nerve Born Sarah Breedlove in 1867 to parents freed from slavery, she built a national hair-care company and trained thousands of agents; the record and the lessons. How a Registered Apprenticeship Works, From the First Day to Journeyman A registered apprenticeship pays you to learn a trade and ends in a portable credential; here is the mechanism, from the 1937 law to the journeyman card. What to Do When an Online Mob Comes for Your Job, Step by Step A numbered playbook for a lawful-opinion pile-on at work, in order: stop posting, preserve evidence, read your papers, ask in writing, get counsel. Can Your Boss Fire You for Your Politics? Answers State by State The First Amendment binds government, not private bosses, so protection for your political views at work depends on state law; here are eleven plain answers. Your First Job Is Not Beneath You, and Here Is Why It Matters So Much The entry-level job teaches showing up, serving, taking correction and earning a dollar, and its dignity runs from Genesis to the Fair Labor Standards Act.