Bring Back the Women!   Challenges and Opportunities in 2021   There has been a perfect storm of conditions that have combined to push 2.5 million women out of the workforce in the last year. Due to the pandemic, there has been dramatic job losses in tourism, hospitality, leisure, travel and transportation. Adding to the conditions amplifying this perfect storm is the fact that the pandemic has forced many homes to double, or triple as classrooms and day care centers. This has created the add-on effect of many women being forced to cut their hours or leave their jobs entirely.   As reported in Brookings, a...

The Great $15 Debate     The $15 minimum wage – a rising tide or a hole beneath the water line?   There is a lively discussion going on regarding the push for a higher minimum wage. In Rhode Island, the Senate Labor Committee voted 7-4 to recommend passage of 2021-S.1, An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations – Minimum Wages. Because of the wide support for a higher minimum wage (two-thirds of Americans), the COVID-19 pandemic, and social unrest related to widening income disparity, this bill is being fast tracked and is on the Senate Calendarfor Feb. 10, 2021. It will then most likely...

Your businesses' messaging has to stand out if you don't don't want to blend in. The right message gets results. The wrong message, or the uninspired one will make you seem unremarkable and forgettable, just when you need to be remarkable and memorable.   Every day, we are subjected to a tsunami of promotion, marketing and advertising in social media and entertainment. Because of this, not only is it difficult to get noticed and stand out, but you also have to do it quicker and quicker. This makes the need for a great tagline more relevant today than ever before.   Although slogans and...

So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment. - Paul Krugman   (Center of the American Experiment)     This is one reason why 72 percent of US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. In 2015, the Employment Policies Institute surveyed 166 economists in the United States on the subject. They found: Nearly three-quarters of these US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. The majority of surveyed economists believe a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have negative...

President-elect Joe Biden's proposal to more than double the federal minimum wage would provide an urgently needed pay hike to millions of low-income workers and help stem inequality in the U.S., economists and labor advocates said.   CBS News, Jan. 16, 2021   In detailing his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal on Thursday, Mr. Biden called for raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, saying, "No one working 40 hours a week should still be below the poverty line."   A fatter paycheck could help many Americans regain their financial footing during the ongoing recovery, including "essential" workers such as grocery clerks and home health...