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Maine’s High Minimum Wage May Be Doing More Harm Than Good
December 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Morning Sentinel
Health-care reform may be grabbing most of the headlines these days, but the unemployment crisis is the No. 1 issue for more than 15 million Americans looking for work. With the national jobless rate now in double digits, a growing consensus that the recession is over is cold comfort for families scraping by on savings and unemployment checks. Maine residents, who have seen their state unemployment rate… -
Holiday Season Hits Jobless Mich. Teens Hard
December 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Detroit News
Though the holiday season is traditionally a time of celebration, this year the teen unemployment crisis threatens to be a lump of coal in the stocking of many young Americans. But it’s not job seekers who have been naughty; it’s their representatives in Congress. In the midst of economic turmoil and a deep recession, Congress ignored the pleas of economists and allowed the third of three planned… -
Employment: Colorado Teens Hit Hard This Holiday
December 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Boulder Daily Camera
Though the holiday season is traditionally a time of celebration, this year the teen unemployment crisis threatens to be a lump of coal in the stockings of many young Americans. But it`s not job seekers who have been naughty; it`s their representatives in Congress. In the midst of economic turmoil and a deep recession, Congress ignored the pleas of economists and allowed the third of three planned… -
Rise In Minimum Wage Added To Teens’ Burdens
December 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Tennessean
Though the holiday season is traditionally a time of celebration, this year the teen unemployment crisis threatens to be a lump of coal in the stockings of many young Americans. But it’s not job seekers who have been naughty; it’s their representatives in Congress. In the midst of economic turmoil and a deep recession, Congress ignored the pleas of economists and allowed the third of three planned… -
State’s minimum wage reveals reality
October 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Boulder Daily Camera
Earlier this month the Colorado Department of Labor announced that the state minimum wage would be decreasing. While many jump to conclusions about such a decrease, the economic impact may actually be a positive one. In the fall of 2006, Colorado voters approved a controversial ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to set the minimum wage at $6.85 and index it for inflation each year. Proponents… -
Minimum wage hike hurts Maine and low-income workers
October 2009 · Kristen Lopez Eastlick · Portland Press-Herald
Maine’s minimum wage increased to $7.50 per hour this month, making it the eighth highest in the nation and 25 cents higher than the new federal rate. This increase – passed last spring as the recession was beginning in earnest – comes at a particularly damaging time for Maine’s entry-level work force. In passing the higher wage, well-intentioned politicians hoped this policy would benefit the state’s low-income…