In honor of Women's Equality Day, recognizing the certification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) released a new report on women in unions. The report found that women in unions earn more than women who are not in a union in every state including West…
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On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its employment and unemployment survey for July 2015 and the news for West Virginia's economy continues to be bad. West Virginia not only has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.5 percent, it is also the only state to have lost a statistically significant number of…
by Brooke Bailey, 2015 Summer Research AssociateOn July 30, 1965 - fifty years ago - President Lyndon Johnson signed a piece of legislation into law that would one day provide assistance to over 70 million people across the United States. Since its adoption, Medicaid has provided health coverage to the states' most vulnerable populations.Medicaid directly…
Andrew Brown has a good piece in the Gazette-Mail highlighting that West Virginia now has the nation's highest unemployment rate. West Virginia's economic recovery since the Great Recession (December 2007) has been bumpy but it now appears that the state may be entering a new downturn. Overall, West Virginia has lost 1.1 percent of its…
Yesterday, an op-ed appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail penned by Bryan Hoylman, the president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors of West Virginia. Mr. Hoylman's op-ed was strongly anti-prevailing wage, going so far as comparing the state's prevailing wage to "larceny." But, while the op-ed was strong on rhetoric, it was weak on…
On Monday, the Joint Select Committee on Taxation met again to discuss revising our state's tax system. The focus of this meeting was on local property taxation, especially as it impacts the coal and natural gas industries. During the meeting, John Mairs, a lawyer for the coal industry, stated that he "would love to have…
Yesterday, the Obama administration's Department of Labor proposed a new rule that will raise the overtime salary threshold from $23,660 to $50,440 by 2016, and index it for the future. This change will extend overtime protection to about 5 million workers in its first year, including 20,000 in West Virginia. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers eligible…
The Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act today, protecting subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, and tens of thousands of West Virginians.In a 6-3 ruling, the Court found that premium subsidies should be available both in states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, and…
While the last post found that state income taxes have little or no impact on interstate migration, there is also little evidence that slashing or eliminating the personal income tax is a surefire way to boost economic growth in the Mountain State. Most of the states that have followed this path recently have not experienced…
Reverse the CurseThis week Ted traveled to Columbus, Ohio to take part in a legislative briefing as part of the Multi-Shale Research Collaborative. His presentation, titled "Reverse the Curse", explored how states like Ohio can create permanent natural resource trust funds to ensure long-term benefits of shale drilling.Welcome, Brooke!This week we welcomed Brooke Bailey as…