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Tag:unemployment insurance

June 10, 2022
News & Commentary

Hannah Finnie

The Government Accountability Office released a trio of reports about the U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) system and its successes and failures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reports found that black applicants for UI were half as likely to receive benefits as white applicants. The reports also found that UI contributed to creating economic stability during […]

The Case for Unemployment Insurance for Incarcerated Workers

Mar 23, 2022 Isabelle Holt

Incarcerated workers harvest corn, peppers, and melons in Colorado, fight wildfires in California, clean the governor’s mansion in Nebraska, and manufacture everything from mattresses to body armor. Just like other employers, the Bureau of Prisons sets inmate-worker job descriptions, pay grades, and performance standards for federal prisons, and state prison systems do the same. Like […]

February 9, 2022
News & Commentary

Jason Vazquez

In the midst of the ongoing unionization efforts erupting at dozens of Starbucks franchises throughout the country, seven workers were fired from one Starbucks restaurant located in Memphis, Tennessee on Tuesday, which allegedly included nearly the entire union organizing committee. The company asserted that the workers at issue had violated several safety and security policies—things […]

On Labor Day, Millions Fall Through the Unemployment Safety Net

Sep 15, 2021 Kevin Vazquez

Last week, on Labor Day, an estimated 8.9 million workers and their families lost federal unemployment benefits, and nearly three million more had their weekly checks reduced by $300 per week. The Biden administration, despite the entreaties of many workers, activists, labor unions, and other organizations, allowed three key pandemic-era federal unemployment programs – Pandemic […]

September 13, 2021
News & Commentary

Fran Swanson

The House Ways and Means Committee circulated a proposal that would raise $2.9 trillion in revenue as congressional Democrats continue to debate the scope of their signature spending package, the Washington Post reports. Much of that would come from tax increases on large corporations and wealthy individuals, though the increases are less than those proposed […]

July 28, 2021
News & Commentary

Jason Vazquez

Since hitting its peak of more than 3 million shots per day in mid-April, the mass-vaccination campaign has dwindled and waned in the United States, dropping to a current rate of around half a million daily jabs, alarming government officials both in the Biden Administration and in state public health departments across the country as […]

May 19, 2021
News & Commentary

Jason Vazquez

As restaurants across the country reportedly struggle to fill many of the grueling positions in their sweltering kitchens, conservative lawmakers have descended on the erroneous consensus that the pandemic-era enhanced unemployment insurance payments are the reason that some workers have failed to return to the job market. Top White House economic advisers countered these accusations […]

May 13, 2021
News & Commentary

Maxwell Ulin

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), announced that members had voted to advance three nominees for labor-policy posts in the Biden Administration. The Committee voted 14-8 in favor of the nomination of Jocelyn Samuels for Democratic Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and by the same margin […]

April 15, 2021
News & Commentary

Maxwell Ulin

On Wednesday, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) unveiled a draft proposal for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s unemployment insurance (UI) program. Among other things, the proposed bill would require states to offer a minimum 26 weeks of unemployment benefits equal to at least 75% of an employee’s former weekly wages, […]

What should the pandemic teach us about the future of unemployment insurance?

Apr 12, 2021 Zachary Sorenson

One year ago, weeks into Covid-induced lockdowns and with the trajectory of the pandemic unknown, Congress passed the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion relief package providing aid to businesses, local governments, and individuals. For workers who lost jobs in the unprecedented unemployment crisis triggered by the pandemic, the most impactful piece of this legislation was […]

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OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

OnLabor is a blog devoted to workers, unions, and their politics. We interpret our subject broadly to include the current crisis in the traditional union movement (why union decline is happening and what it means for our society); the new and contested forms of worker organization that are filling the labor union gap; how work ought to be structured and managed; how workers ought to be represented and compensated; and the appropriate role of government — all three branches — in each of these issues.

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June 10, 2022

The Case for Unemployment Insurance for Incarcerated Workers

February 9, 2022

On Labor Day, Millions Fall Through the Unemployment Safety Net

September 13, 2021

July 28, 2021

May 19, 2021

May 13, 2021

April 15, 2021

What should the pandemic teach us about the future of unemployment insurance?