Labor Movement Spends Millions to Boost Wages for Workers Who Don’t Yet Pay Dues

– The Wall Street Journal 

The union movement is placing a pricey bet as it racks up victories in a national push to raise minimum wages for fast-food workers: It’s spending tens of millions of dollars in support of workers who can’t collectively bargain and don’t pay a penny in dues. The question is whether they’ll become the new face of union membership.

 

Health Policy Is Vital to Tax Reform Policy

– The New York Times 

There is strong bipartisan support in Congress for cutting the corporate tax rate to improve competitiveness. If done in a revenue-neutral manner, as the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was, that simultaneously gets rid of inefficient tax loopholes that distort business decision making, this would be a good thing. But what is really holding back the international competitiveness of American businesses isn’t so much the tax code as our health system; the United States is unique among major countries in that health insurance for the working population is provided almost entirely by employers.

 

Many Workers At “World-Changing” Tech Companies Might as Well Work at Walmart

– Quartz

Technology companies’ reputations as employers often stem from how they treat highly paid engineers, but many also employ thousands of blue collar workers. Tech workers at these companies receive high pay, elaborate perks, and progressive workplace policies, but blue collar workers for the same companies often work in circumstances that look much less innovative.

 

Partisan Identification Is ‘Sticky,’ but About 10% Switched Parties Over the Past Year

– Pew Research Center 

Over a 15-month period encompassing the 2016 presidential campaign, about 10% of Republicans and Democrats “defected” from their parties to the opposing party. Those who switched parties were less politically engaged than people who stayed with their parties. And among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, young people were far more likely than older adults to leave the GOP. Among those under 30 who initially identified as Republicans or leaned Republican in December 2015, 23% shifted to the Democratic Party.