Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)—meaning voter registration that occurs without a proactive effort by individual citizens—has caught fire. Here are three major factors that stakeholders must address.
2016 will likely be remembered for a deeply polarizing presidential election that brought out huge numbers of voters. It should also be remembered for massive voter disenfranchisement.
In this election season, reining in Wall Street is clearly a burning issue for many voters. The passion for Wall Street reform is closely wrapped up with working class anger and anxiety driven by wage stagnation and economic insecurity, all within a climate of accelerating wealth and income inequality.
The organizations are demanding that Ohio stop illegally removing voters from its voter registration rolls in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
How much should I save for retirement? How much should I increase my contributions when I get a raise? Should I save in my firm’s 401(k) or a personal IRA? Which investments should I choose?
For many of us, making the right choices when navigating the bewildering world of investing for retirement can seem nearly impossible. We know that correctly answering these and other questions that arise when investing for retirement are the keys to a comfortable living during our golden years, yet it often feels as if we’d need a finance degree to do so.
The latest challenge of voting procedures contends the state’s system eliminates names of registered voters based on their failure to vote. The lawsuit naming Secretary of State Jon Husted specifically alleges the illegal cancellation of registered voters who are homeless.
Politicians refer to American exceptionalism as a way of pointing out how special is our country. I recently returned to work following three months of paid leave to take care of a very exceptional newborn boy. Having the opportunity to bond with my child is an exceptional experience in the American labor force.
This exceptionalism Americans shouldn't be proud of.
Under New York’s proposed paid family leave law, businesses won’t pay anything for the new family leave benefit. The program would be funded entirely by a small payroll deduction from each worker in the state. An insurance provider will pay the benefits out to workers.
It’s certainly not the most progressive way to fund a new public benefit, but one thing it’s not is a burden on businesses.
Paid family leave is finally gaining steam in the United States. President Obama and the Democratic presidential candidates universally embrace the idea. And while a conservative Congress may stymie federal action for years, states from New York to Colorado to Oregon are moving toward implementing their own family leave insurance systems, building on the success of policies already in place in California, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Same Day Registration is powerful means to reduce the barriers to voting, by making registration and voting a one-stop process that doesn’t depend on navigating confusing pre-election deadlines.
Amy Traub, senior policy analyst at Demos, a public policy organization, told the Public News Service that the vast majority of people who work in New York would benefit from paid family leave.
Nearly 9 out of 10 working New Yorkers do not receive paid leave from their employers.
The call for paid family leave in New York is steadily growing. Just this morning, Governor Cuomo amended his paid family leave proposal to increase the payment for some of the state's lowest paid workers, and at this very moment, New Yorkers are gathering in Albany to call for a family leave insurance system that covers working people statewide.
Today more than a hundred New Yorkers from a host of organizations will descend on Albany, calling on their elected officials to finally guarantee paid family leave to working people statewide. They’ll argue that for too many New Yorkers, bonding with a new baby or tending to a loved one who is seriously ill is impossible without missing a much-needed paycheck. And the numbers back them up.
Seven years ago today, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first piece of legislation that newly-inaugurated President Obama signed into law. The law restored protections against pay discrimination that had been restricted by a recent Supreme Court decision, making it easier for working people to hold their employers accountable for discriminatory compensation.
But as Demos senior policy analyst Amy Traubpoints out in a blog post on Friday, "[b]eing paid less for doing the same job is just one aspect of the pay gap."