
Zachary Boullt is a student at Harvard Law School.
As pandemic restrictions have loosened across the United States, workers in the restaurant, hotel, retail, and salon industries have received half of all payroll gains in June. Raises and hiring bonuses in those industries have also begun to outpace the overall wage growth rate and inflation, though wages still fall below the overall private-sector average hourly wage.
Yahoo! Finance has reported on an increase in the hiring of teens to fill hiring gaps as businesses reopen. Teenagers accounted for 36% of recent hires in June, in comparison to a median rate of 10% during this same period from 2017 to 2019. Fewer teens are currently out-of-work than at any time over the past six decades. Wages paid to teens have also increased by 13% over the past couple of months.
The Chicago Sun-Times has profiled the recent labor activism of the Industrial Workers of the World. The piece focuses on a recent collective bargaining agreement with Dill Pickle Food Co-Op that the IWW helped secure, along with eight meritorious complaints filed with the NLRB over the co-op’s anti-union activities. The IWW’s international headquarters is still in Chicago and spends much of its time forming and supporting locals and affiliate unions. Representatives of the IWW spoke with optimism when interviewed about growing collective consciousness of issues of labor, imperialism, war, race, and class.
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October 23
Ninth Circuit reaffirms Thryv remedies; unions oppose Elon Musk pay package; more federal workers protected from shutdown-related layoffs.
October 22
Broadway actors and producers reach a tentative labor agreement; workers at four major concert venues in Washington D.C. launch efforts to unionize; and Walmart pauses offers to job candidates requiring H-1B visas.
October 21
Some workers are exempt from Trump’s new $100,000 H1-B visa fee; Amazon driver alleges the EEOC violated mandate by dropping a disparate-impact investigation; Eighth Circuit revived bank employee’s First Amendment retaliation claims over school mask-mandate.
October 20
Supreme Court won't review SpaceX decision, courts uphold worker-friendly interpretation of EFAA, EEOC focuses on opioid-related discrimination.
October 19
DOL issues a new wage rule for H-2A workers, Gov. Newsom vetoes a bill that regulates employers’ use of AI, and Broadway workers and management reach a tentative deal
October 17
Third Circuit denies DOL's en banc rehearing request; Washington AG proposes legislation to protect immigrant workers; UAW files suit challenging government surveillance of non-citizen speech