Amazon & The Politics of Retail
– Convenience Store News
When compared to other industries in the retail and service sector, the grocery industry has a significantly higher rate of unionization than its peers, and the largest union representing grocery workers — the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFWC) — is a politically powerful organization. Aside from their ongoing, decades-long assault on Walmart, the UFCW has been relatively quiet and allowed other unions, most notably the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), to do the heavy lifting with regard to leading the campaigns for a $15 minimum wage and a host of other business-model issues important to retailers. But that could all change now.
Federalism Is Dead, Long Live Federalism
– The Atlantic
A Yale law professor argues that America has moved past the relationship among states that the Framers envisioned — but that a new federalism is serving the country well in its stead. As it relates to national movements, be they red or blue, each begin at the local and state level and move their way up. But rather than a divided state and federal system, states and federal government often regulate shoulder-to-shoulder. National actors thus depend on states and localities to carry out national policies — which means that they need buy-in from state and local officials to get things done.
The Controversial Study Showing High Minimum Wages Kill Jobs, Explained
– Vox
A few years ago, Seattle lawmakers embarked on a bold experiment in public policy. Between 2014 and 2017, the city hiked its minimum wage from $9.47 to $15 an hour – a plan so aggressive that economists weren’t sure what would happen. On Monday, researchers at the University of Washington announced that Seattle’s efforts may indeed have backfired. Though the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, it is already the focus of a fierce debate because it seems to contradict more than two decades of economics research. But the University of Washington study differs from previous studies in a significant way: it takes advantage of a much richer source of data.
Can Good Corporate Citizenship Be Measured?
– The New York Times
Big investors, like pension funds and others, have publicly declared that they now consider environmental, social and governance issues to be key metrics of their investment decisions. To pass muster, companies seeking their favor must show a proven track record of responsible stewardship in all three categories. A new study that tries to quantify and correlate stock performance with E.S.G. factors is generating a lot of chatter among the investor class.