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Across America, working families are dedicated to the economic advancement to promote fairness in the workplace and establish policies that help men and women meet the dual demands of work and family. Yet all too often, workers who attempt to join unions, assert other rights in the workplace, or file complaints with protection or civil rights agencies face employer threats, retaliation and discrimination. Other issues affecting the well-being of working Americans include tax cuts, bankruptcy reform, and the minimum wage.
Impact
President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut has threatened American families by disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while draining resources from important safety net programs such as, Medicare, Social Security, education and housing assistance. The tax cut has nearly wiped out the expected budget surplus.
In order to balance the problem, the President has proposed cuts in programs that benefit working families and the poor. These cuts will hurt average Americans and block their access to economic and other resources.
According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the plan provides the highest-income taxpayers with an average annual tax cut of $53,000 - while the 78 million Americans at the bottom 60% of the income scale will receive an average tax cut of $347 a year. Nearly 35 million Americans who earn income and file a tax return will receive no refund at all.
Under the Clinton Administration, the Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) implemented new ergonomic standards intended to reduce workplace injuries. The rule also intended to address musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), such as carpal tunnel syndrome and back injuries in the workplace. The Bush Administration weakened the standards considerably by making compliance by employers wholly voluntary.
These attempts by the Bush Administration only reflect the issues and concerns raised by industry opponents and not by employees. The standard was repealed thereby protecting working families by allowing them to report injuries in the workplace.
Pro-Family Policies Matter to All Americans:
- 40% of workers expect to need family leave within the next 5 years.
- Of 158 countries around the world, 130 have leave policies for mothers and fathers, of which 98 percent have paid leave. Only three - the United States, Ethiopia and Australia - provide unpaid leave.
- The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)-fails to cover 42 percent of the private workforce (40 million employees)
- Parents of both sexes are spending an average of ten or twelve hours less per week with their children than when they did in 1960. (Journal of the American Medical Association study, from The New Yorker.)
Background
The workplace should cultivate an environment that ensures equal opportunity, protects civil rights, prevents discrimination, and provides the flexibility necessary to meet family needs. The goal of reform efforts is to help shape federal and state legislation so as to support the interests of working families. These legislation reforms include increasing the minimum wage, increasing access to health care, welfare reform and social security.
Bankruptcy Reform
The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999 (H.R. 833/S. 625), posed significant threats to the civil rights of all American workers These bills - which approved the most sweeping bankruptcy law changes in 20 years and made it harder for people to erase credit card debt and other debts in court---were passed by Congress but vetoed by President Clinton. Bankruptcy reform legislation was re-introduced in Congress early in 2001.
Minimum Wage
The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) first established a federal minimum wage, on the belief that an honest day's work deserves a decent wage. The most recent increase in the minimum wage was signed into law in 1996, raising the minimum wage to $5.15/hour. At this level, a full-time worker making minimum wage today earns only $10,700 a year - $2,900 below the poverty level for a family of three. It is important that the nation move toward guaranteeing a living wage for all workers. A significant increase in the minimum wage, which has not kept up with inflation, is necessary to help those in entry-level jobs move towards self-sufficiency.
Health Care
Working families need to be able to navigate the changing health care system that works to ensure, quality and affordable health care.
Programs like Medicaid, funded by both the federal and state governments provide health insurance to 40 million low-income Americans, including 21 million children and young adults, 11.1 million elderly, blind, and disabled individuals, and 8.6 million adults in families.
Medicare serves a similar function by being the primary health care plan for older Americans. Both Medicare and Medicaid are safety nets for working families. They are expected to have major funding problems within the next decade. If that is allowed to happen, then millions of people will not have access to basic health care coverage.
Social Security
Social security provides income support to retired individuals. It serves as the retirement plan for working families. Currently, there have been attempts to privatize social security benefits. Supporters of this measure argue that the benefits will be faster and allows individuals the control to invest a portion of their wages from payroll taxes into a personal account. Privatization, however, will hurt working families because it would require deep cuts in all types of social security benefits for disability, retirement and family support.
Additional Websites
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Survey and Information Web Site
Just the Facts: Work and Family
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