"Both wage theft and misclassification are crimes that warrant felony treatment" Peter Neronha, RI Attorney General   Press Release UPRISE RI   AG Neronha testifies before Senate Labor Committee strengthen penalties for wage theft and misclassification     From a press release: Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha testified in the Senate Committee on Labor Wednesday evening in support of S0195, a bill that would increase penalties for both wage theft and the misclassification of employees as independent contractors in Rhode Island.   “There is an underground economy in Rhode Island where people are misclassified as independent contractors when they are really employees. That’s cheating workers and it’s cheating the state’s taxpayers,” said Attorney...

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Woman   For all intents and purposes, Florence, was an unremarkable person. Diminutive, topping out at a mere five feet, my Mother never weighed more than 100 lbs. And, by her own admission, she was the spoiled youngest child in a family with 11 other children. Engaged to Bobby Hensel, Florence was securely ensconced in her comfort zone.   Then came WWII, and her comfort zone was gone. Bobby shipped off to Germany, and was one of the 75,000 casualties of the Battle of the Bulge, ending his life in the belly of a Sherman tank. It was during...

The First Step Is Always The Hardest   J.D. Meier wrote an interesting article for Time called “15 Ways to Motivate Yourself and Others”. For the sake of brevity, and to allow time for a different perspective, I’m only going to mention the first 8…   1.    Connect to your values 2.    Find your why 3.    Change your why (if your original why isn’t right for the long haul) 4.    Change your how 5.    Remember the feeling (more on this later) 6.    Shift to past, present or the future 7.    Find a meaningful metaphor (for example “the little engine that could” 8.    Take action   It’s the “take action” step that I want to use to springboard to a book by...

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...