On May 22nd, Raising Wages NC hosted a lobby day to raise our state's minimum wage.

The raising wages lobby day brought business owners and workers from across the state to Raleigh to talk to legislators about the need to raise the wage. Together they called for representatives to put North Carolina on the path to $15 an hour for all workers. Thanks to the efforts of organizers, faith leaders, advocates, and allies, over 300 people attended the lobby day.

Eight-thousand Methodist women leaders from around the country attended the United Methodist Women's national assembly.  There, UFE Popular Educator Riahl O'Malley co-facilitated the workshop, "Overworked and Undervalued: Gender, Race and the Economy," with our incredible executive director, Jeannette Huezo.

One week after US #TaxDay, the executive directors of Alianza Americas and United for a Fair Economy teamed up for a Facebook Live chat in Spanish.  They discussed who is paying taxes, how they're being spent, and what we can all do to hold our elected officials accountable to responsibly spending our hard-earned money.

As news of the complete devastation across the island of Puerto Rico is released, I find myself incessantly hitting refresh on my Internet browser. With each click, my emotions and tears overwhelm me. A deep feeling of desperation follows. This has become an unintentional daily ritual since “natural disaster" Hurricane Maria struck the island. 

I know I am not alone.

-Eroc Arroyo-Montano

UFE's popular education team held a series of successful workshops at the United Association for Labor Education's 2018 Conference.

UFE’s support for the Raising Wages NC coalition continues with a series of popular education trainings on wages.  Raising Wages NC and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) are partnering to train individuals and organizations to become popular education trainers in the CWA Runaway Inequality curriculum.  After completion participants become trainers themselves, able to run their own Runaway Inequality trainings.

United for a Fair Economy is sponsoring the launch of the Living Wage Network. The network is composed of living wage certification programs that recognize employers who pay a living wage, significantly impacting the lives of tens of thousands of low-wage workers across the country. Currently, seven of the network’s members actively certify employers in locations nationwide. Go to www.livingwagenetwork.org for a list of programs and their locations.

A Statement from United for a Fair Economy Executive Director Jeannette Huezo regarding State of the Dream 2018 (Jan 14, 2018):

Every year, United for a Fair Economy (UFE) issues a “State of the Dream” report, in honor of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that looks at the state of racial economic inequality in the US.  Each year, the report has a different theme (see http://www.faireconomy.org/reports for a compilation of past reports).  For 2018, we decided to focus on the effects of the recently-passed Trump/GOP tax bill, particularly the likely effects on different racial groups. While we believe this will be an important and under-reported aspect of the new tax legislation, we need more time to research the issue, find racial data, and learn more about likely Congressional budget decisions in the wake of the lost revenue from the bill.

More than 400 wealthy and upper-income taxpayers have signed a letter calling on Congress to reject the Republican tax plan that gives tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, especially any plan that is not revenue neutral, which would lead to deep cuts in services and critical investments, such as Medicaid, Medicare, and education.  

Tax reform is hard. It can be complicated, dull, and politically difficult. But that doesn’t change the fact that taxes are one of the most important issues facing Americans today, and progressives should take an active role in the debate. Closing loopholes, reforming rules, changing rates, creating and abolishing taxes- all of these matters play a huge and defining role in economic inequality, poverty, and social mobility. With the Republican congress taking up this issue, the time to push for progressive tax reform is now. 

In a previous post, we at United for a Fair Economy took a look at state preemption laws: laws passed by state governments which override the policies of city governments, especially progressive policies like raises in the minimum wage. These policies are in direct conflict with the ideals of a democracy, but their negative effects are concentrated among one specific group: people of color.

Federalism- the division of decision-making power between different levels of government- is one of the foundational features of American government.

The United States Constitution provides state governments with significant political power. States are considered to be “closer” to the people than the federal government and are therefore better suited to customize policies that meet local needs. But Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made another argument in his dissent to New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann that: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”