Why is it that Washington state's entry-level job applicants faced one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation this year? The state's unemployment rate is 15 percent higher than the national average and 42 percent higher than it was five years ago when the state introduced a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum. Washington state is not alone in experiencing this perpetual high […]

This Labor Day, America faces a profound choice over the fate of its low-skilled work force. We can follow a crowd of prominent Democrats including Howard Dean, John Kerry and Dick Gephardt, who are teaming up with Old Deal liberal warrior Sen. Edward Kennedy to promote an increase in the federal minimum wage by 29 percent. Or we can move forward on the path first […]

America's unemployment rate is now 6.4%, a nine-year high. For many Americans, rising unemployment is an unwelcome change from the long economic boom of the 1990s. But for some, the average rate hides a bigger story. A new study by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) identifies 397 counties and cities -- each with a population of over 10,000 -- that had unemployment rates of 9% or above in […]

It’s official. The unemployment rate in Illinois continued its steady upward march to 6.3 percent last month. One hundred forty thousand Illinois workers have joined the jobless lines since April 2000. But for 800,000 Illinois residents, the statewide increase masks a more troubling story. A new study by the Employment Policies Institute identifies 18 Illinois cities and counties with a population of 10,000 or more […]

If San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez has his way, outbound traffic on the Bay Bridge is about to get much worse. Cars carrying workers to new jobs in Oakland will follow the large trucks carrying what’s left of the city’s beleaguered business community to the friendlier confines of neighboring cities. The exodus will result from Gonzalez’s ill-conceived plan to hike the minimum wage to $8.50. […]