The wage penalty teachers face in comparison to other college graduates hit a record high in 2018, the Economic Policy Institute reports, with teacher pay falling short by 21.4%. That penalty has grown from 5.3% in 1993 and 12% in 2004, but maybe the most striking thing is that, adjusted for inflation, teachers’ average weekly pay actually dropped by $21 between 1996 and 2018.
● Uber and Lyft drivers plan a 24-hour strike to protest pay.
● ‘Privatization is going to kill this city’: How progressives are fighting the plot to gut public education.
● The Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens and Elise Gould offer important context on Sen. Elizabeth Warren's student debt plan:
From 1980 to the mid-1990s, the wage boost connected to a college degree rose significantly. Young adults were told a degree was as close to a sure thing as any investment could be. But starting in the mid-1990s, states cut spending on public universities, and students had to bear ever increasing costs. Again they were told it was worth it — even if it meant taking on debt. The Great Recession supercharged state cutbacks and tuition hikes. The one-size-fits-all advice to get a degree, by borrowing if necessary, also helped spur the rise of for-profit colleges.
But since the mid-1990s, growth in the college wage premium has slowed to a crawl, while debt loads have raced forward. And college is not a financial guarantee.
● Amazon's one-day shipping plan sparks backlash from labor union.
● 'It's because we were union members': Boeing fires workers who organized.
Richard Mester worked for Boeing in South Carolina as a flight safety inspector for five years before being suddenly fired – along with two other employees – in November 2018 for allegedly failing to report a bird strike. However, the bad news also came shortly after the company was told Mester had been elected a union steward.
●
● Fascinating thread:
● California janitors may get labor law protections in wake of federal court decision.
● Chicago's historic charter school strike wave keeps on winning.
