The estimated amount of pandemic unemployment compensation paid out to fraudulent claims has risen to $45.6 billion, according to recent…
Browsing: Labor
Maine’s unemployment rate increased in August, rising to 3.1 percent from July’s rate of 2.8 percent. The labor force participation…
While the number of jobs available in Maine has recovered to near pre-pandemic levels, the state’s labor force participation rate…
Maine’s unemployment rate was 2.8 percent in July, down from 3 percent in June, and averaged 3 percent in the…
According to NBC News, there are 4 million fewer students enrolled in college than there were 10 years ago, and there…
According to the Maine Department of Labor (DOL), Maine’s employment rate decreased slightly to 3 percent in June 2022, the…
I completed another plumbing project this past weekend. The toilet in our master bathroom had been leaking for a while.…
Maine’s unemployment rate fell slightly in May, to 3.2 percent from 3.3 percent the previous month. The labor force participation…
There are a lot of benefits to the New England Clean Energy Connect – benefits we’ve heard a great deal…
Following an upward revision to March’s jobs numbers, Maine’s unemployment rate was “essentially unchanged” at 3.3 percent in April, according…
A law related to pay for vacation time at the end of employment that was enacted in April has the…
Maine’s unemployment rate was 4 percent in February, a small change from January’s rate of 4.1 percent. The number of…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business convened on February 22 to hold a public hearing…
Members of the Maine Legislature’s House of Representatives failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ veto on Wednesday of a bill…
Maine’s unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.7% in December 2021, according to a release issued Tuesday by the Maine Department…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing voted not to move LD 555, a bill that would have given…
On January 10, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a joint temporary action…
On January 1, Maine’s minimum wage increased to $12.75 per hour. The increase is the result of a law passed…
For the month of November, Maine’s unemployment rate remained at 4.8%, a number that has largely been unchanged since February.…
My son recently underwent what was once a common rite of passage: his first job. He now balances the demands…
Maine’s workforce conditions in October were little changed from September according to new data released by the Department of Labor…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 6 granted an emergency stay of the Occupational Safety…
Gov. Janet Mills held a press conference on October 25 to announce funding for four programs intended to address Maine’s…
Maine’s unemployment rate remained largely unchanged between August and September. The unemployment rate ticked down slightly, from 4.9% in August…
The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced the state’s minimum wage will increase by 60 cents on January 1,…
According to the Maine Department of Labor’s (DOL) Center for Workforce Research and Information, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs…
Gov. Janet Mills’ administration recently announced it is awarding Maine hospitals and long-term care facilities $146 million to support workforce…
Despite some improvements to Maine’s economy, the leisure and hospitality industries remain among the slowest to recover from the pandemic.…
The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced on August 11 it is extending the deadline for its Back to Work…
On August 6, the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced that approximately 7,400 unemployment claimants receiving federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance…
The Maine Department of Labor’s (DOL) Back-to-Work grant program will close applications on Friday, August 6. The program allows employers…
On July 12, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed LD 1711, which would have allowed whistleblowers to bring a private enforcement action…
A new report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quotes an analysis from economists who found that states that have…
On June 14, Gov. Mills announced a program to incentivize unemployed Mainers to return to work. Called “Back to Work,”…
To force these new labor restrictions upon employers now would be a grave mistake. LD 553 would likely harm employment across the state of Maine when we most sorely need it.
President Joe Biden believes joining a union isn’t merely a right that workers have but something the federal government has…
In recent years, a number of economic studies have concluded that small to moderate increases in the minimum wage do…
New Hampshire has a lot going for it compared to the rest of New England. The Granite State enforces no…
A new “Hero Pay” mandate in Long Beach, California has inadvertently cost some frontline grocery workers their jobs. “Ralphs and…
President Joe Biden is pushing a federal $15 minimum wage in his sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and the…
School officials and building committees involved in Portland’s elementary school renovations are seeking clarification on the energy requirements of the…
Portland residents approved on November 3 an ordinance that increases the city’s minimum wage from $12 an hour to $15…
Portland voters approved Question A on their local ballots last week, an initiative opposed by the city’s mayor and most…
Should Americans be allowed to freelance? Progressive Democrats have been pushing legislation at the state and federal level that would force gig economy companies…
Rising Tide Brewing, a popular brewery located in Portland, faces a national labor complaint filed by a former employee who…
I have been deeply disappointed to see the strike going on at Bath Iron Works (BIW). As a resident of…
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Janus decision in June of 2018, unions have begun to feel the pressure…
Twenty-two public policy organizations filed amicus briefs last week urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Reisman v. Associated Faculties…
Jonathan Reisman, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias, is appealing his…
On January 1, the state’s minimum wage and overtime exemption thresholds increased by more than nine percent. More specifically, the…
The majority members of Maine’s Legislative Council voted Friday to kill along party lines a pair of nonpartisan emergency bill…
A new law that changes how workers are classified in the “gig economy” will become effective in California next month.…
In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that requiring public-sector workers to pay dues or fees to a union…
This summer, Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson released a formal opinion that said the state is not in compliance with…
This week, in honor of Labor Day, the Maine Center for Economic Policy’s James Myall published an article claiming that…
Advocates of a higher minimum wage rarely appeal to scholarly research to bolster their case. Instead, you’re more likely to…
The Maine Legislature next session will consider another bill that would be harmful to Maine’s small business community and employers…
A $15 federal minimum wage would wipe out 1.3 million low-income jobs and boost the wages of at least 17…
Last week, Governor Matt Bevin gave the keynote address at The Maine Heritage Policy Center’s 2019 Freedom and Opportunity Luncheon.…
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Janus v. the American Federation of State, County…
In the early ‘90s, times were very different than they are today. Maine’s economy was in a tailspin, state revenues…
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule to no longer allow states to make…
Three employees of Kent State University on Monday, April 29 filed suit against the University’s Board of Trustees and the…
Are you a public employee? Public sector labor unions in Maine want access to your personal information, regardless of whether…
This morning, lawmakers on the Labor and Housing Committee held a public hearing on LD 1345, a bill that would…
Lawmakers on Maine’s Labor and Housing Committee today will hold a public hearing on LD 1345, a bill that would…
Lawmakers in Augusta have proposed a spate of bills this session in an attempt to mitigate the negative effects of…
Occupational licensing exists as a mechanism for government to promote public health and safety by requiring workers to meet specific…
They say elections have consequences, and in the case of the minimum wage law that passed by referendum in 2016,…
It was only a matter of time, right? In a piece that read more like political advocacy than real journalism,…
In an article published Thursday on the Maine Beacon – the online opinion service of the Maine People’s Alliance –…
This piece was first published in the Portland Press Herald. I am an associate professor at the University of Maine…
Question 1 plays on voters’ emotions to pass policies that will hurt the very people it’s supposed to help. There…
The standard objection to increasing the minimum wage is that it will result in more unemployment for low-skilled workers. But…
The Maine Department of Labor recently released its projections for job growth for the next several years. The media has…
Policymakers are always asking: ‘What can we do to attract young, talented people to our state?’ In Maine – which…
Occupational licensing is supposed to protect the public from unqualified professionals whose goods and services may harm consumers, yet rarely…
Despite economists on both sides of the aisle agreeing that occupational licensing laws hurt workers and consumers by stifling economic…
Kimberly Fichthorn exemplifies what Maine is looking for. A 47-year-old transplant from Texas, Fichthorn has three young children and operates…
Despite its relatively minimal impact on Maine workers, the labor issue presently garnering the most attention in Maine politics is…
Maine’s progressives have been selling the benefits of the minimum wage increase using faulty analysis. Don’t buy the hype. Our…
Earlier this year, the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a left-wing think tank, published an article written by its budget…
We need to make sure that employees in Maine do not see the same cut in pay that’s happening to…
Advocates claim that by raising the minimum wage, hard-working Mainers working in these positions will be better off, as they…
This article was originally published in the Sun Journal. Nearly two years ago I decided to run for office with…
Occupational licensing is intended to safeguard the public from unqualified, incompetent charlatans whose low-quality goods and services put the health…
Every American citizen should have the right to earn a living and the freedom to pursue the profession of his…
In the discussion surrounding right-to-work legislation, there is a tendency for both opponents and proponents to use misleading myths to advance…