News & Commentary

November 21, 2016

Emily Miller

Emily Miller is a student at Harvard Law School.

Bloomberg reports that over 30% of graduates from for-profit colleges make less than what a person making federal minimum wage would working full-time—around $14,500 per year, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education.  This data corroborates recent research from the National Bureau of Economic Research that students who attend for-profit colleges are, overall, worse off for having enrolled.  The data has led the federal government to stress the value of public education, where students can earn on average $9,000 more per year than their counterparts at for-profit institutions, while graduates from public trade schools make, on average, $2,700 more than their counterparts at for-profit institutions.

A promise from President-elect Donald Trump to “immediately terminate” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, has left people brought to the United States illegally as children in fear of deportation.   The program, set up through policy guidelines rather than executive order, allows authorities to defer action to deport immigrants brought to the United States as children and issue two-year work permits.  In order to apply, applicants were required to provide identity information to U.S.C.I.S. and many are worried that, if DACA is repealed, the information will be turned over to Homeland Security to deport immigrants and their parents.  Civil rights groups, universities, and some cities are already gearing up to protect those who may be exposed if DACA is repealed, reports the New York Times.

Despite a series of tweets by President-elect Donald Trump celebrating Ford’s decision not to move production that was once done in Kentucky to Mexico, the New York Times reports that the decision has no effect on U.S. jobs and that the tweets “overstated” the victory for workers.  Ford never planned to move a plant to Mexico but at one point did plan to move some production of a small SUV to Mexico and dedicate the Kentucky plant to other vehicles.  Regardless, according to Ford, the decisions related to the Kentucky plant at issue would have had no impact on jobs.  As Ford has been a target of President-elect Trump’s criticism of American companies which move jobs to Mexico, the Times reports this move was likely a “political olive branch” but largely “symbolic.”

One of Sweden’s largest unions set up a hotline for workers to complain about “mansplaining,” when a man explains something to a woman in a patronizing or condescending way, reports the Christian Science Monitor.  Every day this week, Unionen will host a service which will allow workers to speak to gender experts and academics about mansplaining in the workplace.  Sweden is one of the top five countries in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum.

The New York Times reports that Major League Baseball is enjoying a time of prosperity, thanks in no small part to labor peace that has spanned the past two decades. Although the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement for MLB players is set to expire December 1, the industry appears confident in continued labor peace, and Commissioner Rob Manfred has hinted that the new C.B.A. will “mostly include tweaks to the current system.”

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