Labor

A sign at a fast-food restaurant advertises for workers.

Minimum wages are increasing in nearly half the states this year

BY: - January 10, 2025

The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as Alaska and Missouri, chose in November to […]

Barrels of firefighting foam.

Accidents not waiting to happen

BY: - December 25, 2024

This story is the first in a series, A Fire Hose of ‘Forever Chemicals,’ which can be seen in entirety here. During 21 years working as a municipal firefighter, “I had hyper-exposure” to foam, recalled Jim Graves, director of training at the Maine Fire Service Institute. Graves entered the fire service at age 17 and […]

A woman helps a young girl.

‘Why not us?’ Nannies, housekeepers win labor protections in some states.

BY: - December 18, 2024

When she first started working as an au pair, Edy Dominguez earned less than the minimum wage and went without paid sick time or overtime pay for extra-long weeks. That’s because domestic workers, including nannies, housekeepers and home health workers, have historically been excluded from the basic labor protections most workers enjoy. “There are standards […]

Workers build a home.

Despite Trump’s claim, deportations likely wouldn’t ease housing crisis, most experts say

BY: - December 12, 2024

The mass deportations of immigrants that President-elect Donald Trump has promised aren’t likely to make a dent in the nation’s housing crisis, many experts say, despite what he and his supporters claimed during his campaign. Experts say the reasons for that are many. Immigrants in the U.S. without documentation are more likely to live in […]

Farmworkers wear protective clothing while working in a field.

Trump migrant deportations could threaten states’ agricultural economies

BY: - December 10, 2024

If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to deport millions of immigrants, it could upend the economies of states where farming and other food-related industries are crucial — and where labor shortages abound. Immigrants make up about two-thirds of the nation’s crop farmworkers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and roughly 2 […]

A boat passes through a raised bridge.

Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies

BY: - December 9, 2024

A major U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer was hailed as a conservative court’s broadside against a Democratic administration, giving red states more backing to delay or overturn policies they don’t like, such as transgender protections and clean energy goals. But the ruling in the Loper Bright case, which granted courts more power to scrutinize […]

High school graduates walk at their commencement.

High school exit exams dwindle to about half a dozen states

BY: - December 4, 2024

Jill Norton, an education policy adviser in Massachusetts, has a teenage son with dyslexia and ADHD. Shelley Scruggs, an electrical engineer in the same state, also has a teenage son with ADHD. Both students go to the same technical high school. But this fall, Norton and Scruggs advocated on opposite sides of a Massachusetts ballot […]

A server waits on customers at a café.

Voters deliver mixed verdicts on increasing minimum wage, but support paid sick leave

BY: - November 15, 2024

Voters in two red states agreed to increase their minimum wage in steps to $15 an hour and to require employers to give workers paid sick time, and a third red state also approved sick leave. But a proposed $18-an-hour base wage in California failed, as did initiatives in two states to change the hourly […]

Employees work at a Rivian electric vehicle factory in Normal, Ill.

Manufacturing already has made a comeback

BY: - November 12, 2024

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, McLean County, Illinois, was known mostly as the home of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington and Illinois State University in Normal. Now, the area illustrates a trend that’s bringing more factories to small cities with lower costs of living: It has thousands of new jobs manufacturing Rivian electric vehicles and a […]

A woman stands in her storm-damaged home.

‘Invisible’ migrant farmworkers cope with hurricane’s aftermath

BY: - October 31, 2024

LAKE PARK, Ga. — For the past month, farmworker Albertin Melo, his wife, Angelica Garcia, and their three children have taken refuge under debris. When ferocious Hurricane Helene left their south Georgia mobile home in shambles, the family improvised new shelter by patching together remnants they found sprawled across their Lake Park neighborhood: salvaged tin […]

A man displays photos on a cellphone.

Haitian immigrants find new footholds, and familiar backlash, in the Midwest, South

BY: - September 30, 2024

Fortified with work authorizations and a new freedom, Haitian immigrants are moving out of their longtime strongholds in Florida and New York, often finding good jobs while remaining wary of how they will be received in new places in the Midwest and South. This movement helps explain why Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have become […]

A youth holds up a sign.

In swing states that once went for Trump, unions organize to prevent a repeat

BY: - September 25, 2024

This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country. Wisconsin carpenter Efrain Campos just retired this summer after 30 years, working mostly […]