PathWays PA Policy Blog

PathWays PA is excited to announce that we will be partnering with the U. S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, The Free Library of Philadelphia and the EEOC for a discussion on women and the workplace. The event will take place this Monday, May 5, from 2:00PM-4:00PM in room 108 of the Philadelphia Free Library Parkway Central Branch located at 1901 Vine Street . Topics to be discussed include: Equal Pay Paid Leave Compensation/Wages Negotiation Register for the event by calling the Women's Bureau at 215-861-4864 or sign up online . All attendees will receive a negotiation checklist to take home with them. PathWays PA actively advocates for equal protections in the workplace, equal pay and paid leave on the local, state and national levels.

From our friends at MomsRising Raising the minimum wage helps women and it helps families. Women account for 55% of all workers who would benefit from increasing the minimum wage to $10.10. In addition, 28% of minimum wage workers have children. And what about that wage gap? Women already are at a disadvantage, earning less on average than men. The gap only increases for women of color and low-wage workers. Working moms now make up about 40% of primary breadwinners for American families with children, but are bringing home 23% less than their male counterparts. Less pay means less ability for moms to provide the basics for their children like food, medicine, and housing, as well as longer term needs like college tuition. If you want to close the wage gap and pull families out of poverty, Congress needs to raise the minimum wage, because working year round, full-time at the current federal minimum wage adds up to less than $15,000 per year. Make your voice echo through the hal...

From our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs Beginning at 3:00PM, Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the lead Senate sponsor of legislation to raise the minimum wage will speak with others on their plans for the Fair Minimum Wage Act. A large coalition of groups is coming together to make 2014 a year of action to raise the minimum wage. The webinar will focus on the latest facts about how the minimum wage increase will help workers, families, and the economy, how to dispel myths spread by opponents, and how to join in actions from local events to social media campaigns. You can ask questions and will get resource materials you'll need. Additional speakers include: Christine Owens : Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project, Chris is a national spokesperson and expert on worker rights, including the minimum wage and unemployment insurance Moderator-Ellen Teller : Director of Government Rel...

With an enormous workforce of more than 10 million people, the restaurant industry is one of our country's fastest growing and largest economic sectors; it also produces the lowest paying jobs in the country. Gloria Steinem helped us launch the campaign by sharing her story of living off tips - watch and share the video . Saru Jayaraman, our co-director and co-founder, talks about the campaign with media justice organization, Women's Media Center - read the feature . Share your story and follow the campaign on Twitter #LivingOffTips.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) will host a webinar on Thursday, October 10 at 1PM, "Winning Wage Justice: Collecting Unpaid Wages". Workers who have obtained a legal judgment in their favor for unpaid wages and penalties often face another obstacle -- collecting the money due to them. Learn about all the tools and strategies available for collecting on legal judgments. Find out about recent legislative successes, campaigns, and tactics, including wage liens, that can help workers recover what is owed to them. Register Here

Three presidents have come and gone. Bubbles have inflated and burst. The tipped minimum wage is still $2.13 an hour. Almost a quarter of American children have a parent who makes the minimum wage. Raising the floor for all workers, including tipped workers, will give a jolt to the economy by putting money in the hands of people who will spend it in their communities. Click here to ask the House and Senate to raise the minimum wage.

Tomorrow will mark the 4th year without a raise in the minimum wage and over 21 years without an increase in the tipped minimum wage. In continued efforts for family sustaining jobs, ROCunited , an organization that advocates for restaurant workers, wants to call attention to the out-of-date minimum and tipped minimum wages. There will be an action event at a nearby business in Center City beginning at 1:30PM. Participants are asked to RSVP and meet at City Hall on the S. Broad St. side by the 6ft tall neon green birthday card at 1PM. Please RSVP here , email sheila@rocunited.org or call (215) 867-9747. Sign-Up for Our Monday ENewsletter to receive more stories!

Nearly a third of the nation’s working families earn salaries so low that they struggle to pay for their necessities, according to a  new report . Analyzing 2011 data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the report said that 32% of working families earned salaries that put them below double the poverty threshold. For a family of four, double the poverty threshold was $45,622. That percentage has crept up from 28% in 2007, the year the recession began. Families that are below 200% of the poverty level are considered "in poverty".  The report has made a clear distinction that working families are falling within the poverty lines, increasing the number of working poor families in the country. The growth in the ranks of the working poor coincides with continued growth in income inequality. Many of the occupations experiencing the fastest job growth during the recovery also pay poorly. Among them are retail jobs, food preparation, clerical work and customer a...