Several recent articles highlight both the continuing pressure on workers’ wages as well how decreasing wages helped cause the Great Recession in the first place.

This article points to a troubling reality that even for those unemployed people fortunate to find a new job, that new job often means a decrease in wages and living standards.

This article describes how the entire annual increase in health care costs is being borne by employees with employer health insurance instead of being borne by the employers.  This is but one example of the skyrocketing cost of health care over the years has eaten away at any wages gains for the working class.

Finally, this extremely insighful op-ed by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich describes how the generation-long erosion of working class wages helped fuel the debt boom that ended in the Great Recession.  Unless and until serious measures are enacted to improve the wages of the working class, we will not experience a sustainable recovery or return to general prosperity.

Categories: General News Tags: Great Recession, Health Care, Health Insurance, Labor and Employment, New York Times, Robert Reich, Wages

The New York Times has a very useful article on COBRA, and how it is affected by the recently-enacted health care reform act.  It starts:

“If you’ve recently joined the ranks of the unemployed or are worried that you soon will, you may be wondering if the sweeping new health law will help you. Will you, for instance, still be able to get health insurance under the government-mandated Cobra program? If so, for how long? And at what price?”

Categories: General News Tags: COBRA, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Unemployment Benefits

On March 23, after the House and the Senate were finally able to resolve their differences, President Obama signed into law the landmark health care bill that promises to mark affordable health care a reality for all Americans.  Extensive coverage of the act can be found elsewhere, but this is a good summary of how it effects workers and individuals.

Update: Congress has also passed a set of amendments to the act, completing the legislative saga.  The changes increase the levels of subsidies that will help moderate-income Americans afford private insurance, alter some of the taxes that help pay for the bill, and close the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole among others.

Categories: Legislative Action Tags: Congress, Health Care, Labor and Employment, President Obama

The Obama administration proposed new rules recently that should improve insurance coverage of mental health care for more those fortunate to have medical insurance through their jobs.  The rules implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). Under the rules, employers and group health plans generally cannot provide less coverage for mental health care than for the treatment of physical conditions.  More information is available from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Of course, what millions of uninsured workers need right now is the healthcare reform bill that is stalled in Congress, so that everyone can get health insurance.  Even the bill the Senate passed would be a big step in the right direction, if only the House would just pass it.

Categories: Legislative Action Tags: Administrative Rulemaking, Congress, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Medical Insurance, MHPAEA

Family-Friendly Workplaces: Do Unions Make a Difference?, written by Jennifer MacGillvary of the Labor Center at the University of California-Berkeley and Netsy Firestein of the Labor Project for Working Families, concludes the unions lead to workplaces that, through policy and practice, promote a healthy and viable balance between work life and home life.   Significantly, the study finds that unions increase compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, ensure paid sick leave for employees and their children, and increase the likelihood that health care is covered for families.

Categories: General News Tags: Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Study, Union

The United Steelworkers (USW) announced that workers overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement covering about10,000 union members at seven Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plants, including the plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  The new pact provides job security and maintains quality, affordable health care for the union members.  It also provides for a commitment by Goodyear to invest $600 million in the plants, keeping them up to date and globally competitive.

Categories: General News Tags: Contract, Goodyear, Health Care, Labor and Employment, Union, USW