Category: Labor and Workforce
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Jefferson Institute’s Hit List Bills Mostly Gone
By Derrick Max Monday was not just the near total solar eclipse in Virginia, but also the deadline for Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to act on the budget and the remaining bills on his desk. As our Steve Haner wrote, in “Governor’s Budget Compromise Eclipses Fears of Stalemate,” we are generally positive about the approximately…
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Proposed Tax for Leave Pay Guaranteed to Grow
By Derrick Max Sitting on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk is a paid family and medical leave bill that would provide eight weeks of paid leave per year for most employees in the Commonwealth. The program would pay employees 80 percent of their weekly salary up to an amount equal to 80 percent of the regional…
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Max: Youngkin Right To Veto Minimum Wage
By Derrick Max There is a near-universal consensus among economists that increases in the minimum wage harm low-skilled workers the most. Originally designed to mimic racially discriminatory laws elsewhere, the minimum wage continues to be a means of picking certain classes and geographic locations over others. For example, the minimum wage benefits the high-cost-of-living areas in the…
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Which Side Are You On?
by Joe Fitzgerald Dartmouth’s basketball team voted this week to unionize. It’s a shame Harrisonburg’s police officers can’t. The basketball players will join the SEIU, Service Employees International Union, a kind of super union for people who don’t qualify for other unions. SEIU strongly supports health care and a higher minimum wage, making it a…
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Four Major Progressive Goals Still Advancing
By Steve Haner The aggressive progressive agenda working its way through the 2024 Virginia General Assembly has lost some steam at the halfway point, but at least four of the major Democratic goals discussed earlier are still advancing. The two bills which will have the greatest impact on the Virginia economy are the proposed minimum…
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Labor Day: A New Start
by Kerry Dougherty Labor Day. America’s most ambiguous national holiday. Think about it. On other special days – Memorial, Independence, Veterans, Thanksgiving, Presidents, Martin Luther King and Christmas – we pause, however briefly, to honor a beloved person or a historical event. We have parades, visit cemeteries, blast fireworks, give thanks, recite a famous speech…
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The Virginia State Budget and the Rising Costs of Registered Nurses
by James C. Sherlock I was asked yesterday by a reader about the relationship between nursing homes, rising registered nurse salaries and the new Virginia budget agreement. Good questions. Virginia’s workforce includes nearly 70,000 registered nurses. The state pays its workers, but it also pays its Medicaid share for private sector nurses. Pay for private…
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Virginia Has an Opportunity to Take the Lead in Nursing Home Technology Insertion to Improve Care with Existing Staff
by James C. Sherlock A pending new federal rule defining strong nursing home staffing minimums has finally accomplished something that I thought unlikely in my lifetime. It has in a single stroke aligned the interests of patients and their loved ones, nurses, nursing homes, state and federal governments, and taxpayers in finding ways to make…
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An Overdue New Federal Rule to Improve Nursing Home Staffing
By James C. Sherlock What would happen if the federal government were to propose for the first time specific nursing home staffing minimums? We are about to find out. A new rule. A new federal proposed rule introduced yesterday has already survived fierce opposition from the industry, which tried to kill it in the womb.…
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Schools Shouldn’t Open Before Labor Day
by Kerry Dougherty Better sit down, youngsters. Did you know you’ll only get OUT of school two days earlier than last year? Yep, your last day of classes is June 14, 2024. Last June you finished up on June 16th. Joke’s on you. Oh, and the teachers who pushed for the new schedule believing they’d…
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An Utter (and Videotaped) Disgrace of the Virginia General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Whatever the Virginia Health Care Association (VHCA), the state’s nursing home lobbying organization, pays its General Counsel, Scott Johnson, it is not enough. He has been representing them for 20 years, and he owns the General Assembly. This is going to sound boring as I frame the background that is the…
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Virginia Hits Highest Labor Force Participation Rate in a Decade; Unemployment Decreases
(First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.) by Derrick A. Max Work isn’t just about a paycheck. At its core, work is about freedom, accomplishment, respect, human dignity, and even companionship. Work gives purpose and is essential to a thriving community, and thriving communities are essential to a thriving state. That is…
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Deflating Degree Inflation
by Robin Beres In May 2021, The Harvard Business Review featured a column by Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Learning titled, “The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need.” Hansen argued that today’s education system is not equipping students “with the skills and capabilities to prepare for a career where they can obtain…
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Major Actions to Reduce Corporate Overhead Offer Lessons and Opportunities to Virginia Government
by James C. Sherlock The chart above shows that management and administrative overhead growth has been a trend not limited to government. The difference is that corporations are making quick and decisive strides in reversing the trend. It is axiomatic that government should minimize overhead to maximize efficiency in delivery of services. And to lower…
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Allen Litten, 1935-2023
by Joe Fitzgerald Someone else held the title, but Allen Litten was really the assistant when I was city editor at the Daily News-Record. I knew the police scanner was in the darkroom, but sometimes I thought it must be imbedded in his cheekbone. One story sums up all he was for me, and I…