Embattled Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) recently took to the airwaves to answer questions why Pennsylvania has continued to shed jobs under his Administration. In an effort to explain Pennsylvania's dismal job growth, Governor Corbett said that while businesses want to hire more workers...
CEO pay was 354 times that of the average worker last year, according to the AFL-CIO's new Executive PayWatch database. The labor group asserts that this is "by far the largest pay gap in the world." In 2012, the chief executives of some of the country's largest companies earned an average of...
The Constitution does not apply to private employers. This means that: Your boss can read you email. Any email you send on a work-issued computer goes through the company's servers and can be read by your employer. Your boss can listen to your phone calls at work. If they are work-related, your...
On April 13, 2013, the Pittsburgh employment lawyers at the Lamberton Law Firm proudly celebrated Martin Sheen's lifetime of service and dedication to the causes of workers' rights, civil rights and global peace. Mr. Sheen has been a friend of labor for more than 40 years and been arrested 66...
The right of employees to be free from discrimination in their compensation is protected under several federal laws, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and Title I of the Americans...
The Equal Pay Act has been law for 50 years, but women are still way behind men in earnings. April 9 is the date when U.S. working women finally catch up to the amount men earned by last December 31. That's because the gender pay gap between women and men for full time year...
The United States doesn't celebrate May Day as an official national holiday, setting itself apart from the rest of the world's democracies. Elsewhere, May 1 is International Workers' Day, observed with speeches, rallies, and demonstrations. This celebration of working-class solidarity originated...
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announces challenge to UPMC's bogus tax-exempt status and assembles an excellent legal team to do it. As reported on March 22, 2013, by Sean Hamill of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: When Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced Wednesday that he was going to...
A few remarks from a Nobel-prize winning economist on raising the minimum wage - [The President has called for] a rise in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9, with subsequent increases in line with inflation. The question we need to ask is: Would this be good policy? And the answer...
The United States remains the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, that does not guarantee mothers any paid time off from work after the birth of a new child. (see Figure 1) In fact, the United States is one of only three countries in the world...
The federal anti-discrimination laws represent the public policy of the United States to eliminate discrimination from the workplace. Both the EEOC and private parties enforce these laws, with the lion share of enforcement actions taken by private parties who assert claims. Employers know that if...
"Right-to-work" laws weaken unions by making them provide services to union and nonunion members alike, without making all beneficiaries pay their fair share. By severely weakening unions, which are vital to strengthening the middle class and improving the economy, "right-to-work" laws have broad...
A dentist acted legally when he fired an assistant that he found attractive simply because he and his wife viewed the woman as a threat to their marriage, the all-male Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court ruled 7-0 that bosses can fire employees they see as an "irresistible attraction,"...
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that will clarify who is a "supervisor" when it comes to Title VII sexual harassment litigation. Under current law, an employer is vicariously liable under Title VII for severe or pervasive workplace harassment by the supervisor. If the harasser is...
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) has released a fact sheet advising how employment practices that discriminate against applicants or employees who have experienced domestic or dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking may violate Title VII. While the EEOC acknowledges that...