Sunnyvale is the latest municipality to boost the earning potential of its lowest paid workers. The City Council passed a $10.30 an hour minimum wage last night. The ordinance had been in the works for several months, and the final vote came closely on the heels of Mountain View which raised its minimum to the same level last week. Both…
In the Valley of Plenty, one in three residents do not earn enough to get by. As the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors contemplates creating an ordinance requiring its contractors to pay employees a living wage, a new economic report was released Tuesday, Oct. 14, illustrating the profound and widening economic gap in Silicon Valley. Tweet
Oct 10, 2014
It’s a big win for working families, and Mountain View deserves a pat on the back. The city that’s home to Google and a host of other high tech giants, is joining the ranks of cities moving to help lower wage workers earn a basic, fair wage. Going into effect next summer, Mountain View will join San Jose at a…
Oct 2, 2014
I have a case of the somedays. Someday, public education will be funded at the level that our students and teachers deserve, and not at a level less than 95% of the rest of the nation. Until then, we must walk. We must tell people our stories and ask for their support. Someday, in this country, we will be respected…
Sep 25, 2014
The heartbreaking headlines about thousands of Central American children making the treacherous journey alone to seek refuge in the U.S. have me thinking about my own American immigration story more than 25 years ago — and how different my family’s experience was from the inhumane policy response of our current government. My family came to the U.S to escape from…
Sep 22, 2014
Sam Liccardo must be kicking himself for sticking with an unconstitutional approach to public pensions that he knew, as a lawyer, could not withstand legal scrutiny. It was a political miscalculation based on the views of the electorate during a recession. When the economy is suffering, the public has a tendency to look critically at public employee compensation and benefits…
Sep 16, 2014
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was pushed primarily as a way to extend health insurance coverage. This was and is an important goal. However another important aspect of the ACA is its impact on the labor market. The vast majority of people who are below Medicare age get their insurance through their job. This meant that tens of millions of…
Sep 12, 2014
This week we have a Galactic Whopper from George Will in the Washington Post. His column is titled “Senate Democrats Extremism on Display.” It contends that the effort by Senate Democrats to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision by a proposed constitutional amendment constitutes true extremism – an effort to radically shrink First Amendment protection of political speech. In…
Sep 10, 2014
With all of the new worries we’ve had in San Jose in recent years…the police exodus, the rise in crime, the poor relationships between city employees and their bosses…it’s easy to lose sight of other “quality of life” issues that are really just as important. In fact, some of the issues that are getting left on the back burner, cold…
Aug 25, 2014
Santa Clara County Living Wage Ordinance Thursday, August 29,Supervisors will accept a report from the Office of the County Executive relating to the feasibility and recommended framework for a County living-wage Ordinance and a Worker-Friendly Employer Certification Program, including progress on the compilation of an inventory of current County contracts greater than $50,000 per vendor. Tweet