Maddie

Equal Pay for Women Gains Traction in Senate

STRAIGHT TO THE POINTS
– President-elect has reportedly expressed support for the pending legislation.
– Women’s advocate group stresses that equal pay legislation is long overdue.
– Bill designed to overturn Supreme Court decision blocking worker’s right to sue.

Equal pay for women in the workplace took another step closer to reality on Thursday after the Senate voted to consider bills that would make it easier to challenge workplace pay discrimination.

One of those bills, dubbed the Lilly Ledbetter bill, would overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision that blocked a worker’s right to sue for pay discrimination.

Some Senate Republicans are unhappy with the bill claiming that it would result in a proliferation of lawsuits and would mainly benefit trial lawyers. Anne Ladky, Executive Director of an advocate group called "Women Employed" calls that sentiment "nonsense," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Ladky stresses that equal pay for women is long overdue,

The bill is "simply a restoration of fundamental rights that had been in place for decades," said Ladky. “There is really nothing radical about this bill."

In May 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a $360,000 award to Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. worker, saying she'd sued too late. Justices voted 5-4 along ideological lines.

President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly already expressed his support for the pending legislation.

Unemployment Rates Could Surge Far into 2010

STRAIGHT TO THE POINTS
– Job losses are likely to continue mounting through middle of 2010.
– Jobless claims have already surpassed the half million mark in 2009.
– Surge in new claims due to those who delayed filing claims over the holidays.

New jobless claims soared past the half million mark last week jumping up more than 54,000 for the week ending January 10th. Experts say the worst holiday season in forty years coupled with a faltering economy will likely prompt more layoffs in the near future.

Prospects look dim even if the economy begins to grow again in the second half of this year, according to Charles L. Evans, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Job losses are likely to continue mounting into the middle of 2010, according to Evans.

The figures came out the day after retail sales were reported to be sharply down in December.

The last time jobless claims exceeded the half-million mark was the week that ended Dec. 20, when claims surged to a 26-year high of 589,000, according to CNN Money.

Ian Shepherdson, an economist with High Frequency Economics in New York, believes that jobless claims will rise and he doubts that the peak in claims will be reached before the fall of 2009.

The Labor Department indicated that first-time requests for unemployment insurance jumped to a seasonally adjusted 524,000 last week, far above analysts' expectations of 500,000 new claims.

Much of the increase is attributed to a flood of requests from newly laid-off people who delayed filing claims over the holidays, according to the Labor Department.

Blood in the Water; Can Startups Fill the Void?

STRAIGHT TO THE POINTS
– From 1980-2005, startups accounted for more than 3% of all annual new hires.
– High unemployment rates provide startups with a large pool of qualified talent.
– Startup companies could play a pivotal role in getting Americans back to work.

Some experts believe that despite a series of dismal job reports, startup companies will play a pivotal role in getting Americans off the streets and back to work. This is welcome news for a faltering economy where more than half a million jobs have dried up since last Thanksgiving.

A new study released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau reports that both startups and qualified people in need of jobs could be the perfect match for one another. Private sector start-ups accounted for more than 3% of new employment per year between 1980 and 2005, according to the Business Dynamics Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

That 3% growth may not sound like much – but it represents a huge piece of the labor pie. Excluding jobs created by new firms, established domestic companies often lose more jobs than they create, according to Forbes Magazine. On average, tiny companies with less than five people account for a staggering 20% of new jobs created nationwide.

“Job growth is essential for our economy to rebound, and this study shows that new firms have historically been an important source of new jobs in the United States,” said Robert Litan, Vice President of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.

“Our research into the early years of business formation consistently shows how vital new firms are to our economy, and this data should give policy-makers and budding entrepreneurs alike great hope for how we can solve our current crisis — create and grow jobs through entrepreneurship.”