
Fred Messner is a student at Harvard Law School.
On an otherwise slow day for labor news, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning that white-collar professionals may finally be catching a break. According to wage data tracked by the Atlanta Fed, “[p]ay for finance, information and professional employees rose 4.4% in January from a year earlier, outpacing 4% wage growth for” workers overall. Whereas last year’s wage gains generally concentrated in lower-wage sectors, the effects of a tighter labor market have begun to reach even the higher-wage segments of the workforce. With workers scarce and demand hot, some employers—those in finance and law, in particular—have granted dramatic raises and paid eye-popping bonuses in the early months of 2022. Job-switchers, in particular, have most effectively translated their greater bargaining power into material gains, but even workers remaining in the same job have benefited. As the Atlanta Fed explained, “[a]nnual wages for people staying in their jobs grew by 3.7% last month, up from 3.1% in January 2021.” While the deeper implications of professional-managerial class prosperity are complex, the recent data is the latest sign that leverage in the economy is shifting, however fleetingly, from firms to individual workers.
Kevin reported yesterday on the “Starbucks unionization wildfire” that continues to rage across the country. As he explained, the company has begun to fight back with a host of well-worn anti-union tactics. Yesterday, the coffee giant escalated further by firing Cassie Fleischer, one of the most prominent organizers at the Buffalo Starbucks that set the unionization drive in motion and a member of the larger Starbucks Union’s bargaining committee. According to Fleischer, the company fired her after she reduced her availability to make time for a second job, telling her that she “no longer met the needs of the business.” The NLRB has previously found Starbucks to have violated the NLRA by discharging union supporters on various pretexts, and experienced observers have suggested that Fleischer’s discharge may be similarly pretextual.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
July 4
The DOL scraps a Biden-era proposed rule to end subminimum wages for disabled workers; millions will lose access to Medicaid and SNAP due to new proof of work requirements; and states step up in the noncompete policy space.
July 3
California compromises with unions on housing; 11th Circuit rules against transgender teacher; Harvard removes hundreds from grad student union.
July 2
Block, Nanda, and Nayak argue that the NLRA is under attack, harming democracy; the EEOC files a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels; and SEIU Local 1000 strikes an agreement with the State of California to delay the state's return-to-office executive order for state workers.
July 1
In today’s news and commentary, the Department of Labor proposes to roll back minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by public defenders over a union’s Gaza statements, and Philadelphia’s largest municipal union is on strike for first time in nearly 40 years. On Monday, the U.S. […]
June 30
Antidiscrimination scholars question McDonnell Douglas, George Washington University Hospital bargained in bad faith, and NY regulators defend LPA dispensary law.
June 29
In today’s news and commentary, Trump v. CASA restricts nationwide injunctions, a preliminary injunction continues to stop DOL from shutting down Job Corps, and the minimum wage is set to rise in multiple cities and states. On Friday, the Supreme Court held in Trump v. CASA that universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that […]