Tag Archives: Professor Gates

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More from 1600 Penn

05/14/2015 Nativegrl77

What You Need to Know About the New Contraception Guidance:

This week, the Obama administration took important steps to eliminate any ambiguity around the reforms that the Affordable Care Act calls for. Under the law, most insurers must now cover at least one form of birth control with no out-of-pocket expenses in each identified category.

This past Saturday, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address to the Class of 2015 at Tuskegee University — a historically black university in Tuskegee, Alabama. Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee is the only university in America to be designated as a National Historic Site.

President welcomed emerging entrepreneurs from across the country and around the world to the White House to honor their achievements in their fields of business. He also announced new commitments in support of the Spark Global Entrepreneurship Initiative — a bold goal of generating $1 billion in new investment for emerging entrepreneurs worldwide by 2017.

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“I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the costs that I paid for that.”

— President Obama at yesterday’s discussion on poverty at Georgetown University

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Poverty and Opportunity in Your Community: What Are You Seeing?

This week, we want to hear from you about some of the pressing issues in your own community related to poverty and opportunity.

President Obama sat down with Harvard professor Robert Putnam and American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks for a discussion on poverty, moderated by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Now we want to hear from you on this important topic.

Share with us how these issues are playing out in your community, and how you think we can continue expanding opportunity for more Americans.

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Overdue for Overtime

05/13/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Millions of Americans Would Benefit From Expanding Overtime Pay

Americans are working harder and earning less. But finally, progress is being made on an often-overlooked policy that has a substantial effect on this trend: overtime pay. Last week, the Obama administration came one step closer to fulfilling an executive order to reform overtime rules. We don’t know the details of the proposed rule yet, but if President Obama restored federal overtime standards to its inflation adjusted 1975 level, workers earning up to $51,168 would qualify to earn overtime pay. That would mean up to 47 percent of the salaried workforce—6.1 million people—would have more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.

The administration’s full proposal to expand the population eligible for overtime pay is now under review by to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But there are still a few steps left in the process before the rule can become final. After the rule is reviewed by OMB, it will be published and then there will be a period during which interested parties can submit comments on the rule.

Americans are overdue for an overtime update. In 1975, more than 65 percent of salaried workers earned time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours. Today, only 11 percent do. The threshold for overtime pay has fallen so much that current overtime law, by definition, no longer covers the middle class. Only workers earning less than $23,660 a year—below the poverty line for a family of four—qualify for overtime pay.

Increasing eligibility for overtime pay makes sense, and Americans know it. Support for increasing the threshold for overtime pay is incredibly high, according to a new poll released today:

73 percent of voters support some substantial increase in the overtime pay threshold.

65 percent of voters think workers making up to $75,000 a year should receive overtime when working more than 40 hours a week, regardless of job classification.

64 percent of all voters—and 54 percent of Republicans—said they are more likely to vote for leaders who support increasing the overtime threshold.

BOTTOM LINE: Americans deserve to be fairly compensated for their hard work. But instead, they are working harder and longer to stretch their earnings just to keep up with the cost of living. Our current overtime law is long overdue for an update and the Obama administration’s executive order would help millions of Americans get more money in their pockets or more time to spend with their friends and family.

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Tell Congress to raise the minimum wage

05/03/2015 Nativegrl77

Two in three minimum wage workers are women, and many women work in low-wage jobs that pay just a few dollars (or cents) more. As a result, millions of women and families nationwide are struggling to make ends meet.

Now there’s a bill before Congress that could have a huge impact for these working families. The Raise the Wage Act would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour and give more than 21 million working women, including 9.3 million women of color, a raise.

Working Women Deserve a RaiseUrge your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Raise the Wage Act.Take Action

At just $7.25 an hour, today’s federal minimum wage leaves a full-time working woman with two children living thousands of dollars below the poverty line. The Raise the Wage Act, just introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, would change that: it would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020, boosting paychecks for nearly one in three working women — 21.1 million total, including 6.8 million working moms.

The Raise the Wage Act would also index the minimum wage starting in 2021 so it keeps up with wages overall. And it would gradually phase out the minimum cash wage for tipped workers to ensure they are paid a fair minimum wage before tips — because right now, employers can pay tipped workers an hourly wage of just $2.13.

This bill is critical to the economic security of working women and their families. Urge your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Raise the Wage Act.

Thank you for all you do for women and families.

Sincerely,
Joan Entmacher
Vice President for Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center