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Because the federal minimum wage is not tied to inflation it loses buying power in most years. If Congress does not act, it is projected to lose 20 percent of its real value in the next 10 years. The federal minimum wage would now be $10.58 if it had kept pace with the cost of living since its peak of purchasing power in 1968.

Over one million workers in this industry have no health insurance. 90 percent of direct caregivers are women, and many are primary breadwinners in their families. Caregivers are paid minimum wage or, if they are lucky, just slightly above. Earning such low wages with no health insurance means that 46 percent of direct caregivers rely on some type of government program, such as food stamps, Medicaid, housing, child care, energy assistance, or transportation assistance.

If the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program is not reauthorized, the share of jobless workers receiving unemployment insurance in the United States will likely decrease to approximately one in four.

The Palm Beach County wage theft law was modeled after Miami-Dade's version. Miami-Dade’s wage theft law has already withstood a legal challenge. It has been estimated that contractors in Florida deprive workers of between $60-$90 million each year.

In Massachusetts, a concrete company has been ordered to pay $161,000 in back pay and penalties for intentionally failing to comply with the prevailing wage.

Great news: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November, nearly double the projections. What's more, the overall unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent, its lowest point in four years.

According to a new report from Good Jobs First, the building boom in the District of Columbia is not producing jobs for local residents despite recently strengthened local hiring ordinances.

As President Obama gets closer to making his deal with the Republicans on the budget, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the fiscal cliff is an artificially contrived trap. Were it not for the two Bush wars and the two Bush tax cuts and the House Republican games of brinkmanship with the routine extension of the debt ceiling, there would be no “fiscal cliff.”

Duluth Mayor Don Ness and President of Ventera Wind Joseph Woods held a press conference Wednesday about wind energy. Specifically, they want Congress to extend incentives to encourage the wind energy industry's further development. Currently, wind energy provides nearly 13 percent of Minnesota's power. Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation.

Over the weekend The Daily Kos highlighted a cartoon from Tom the Dancing Bug (cartoonist Rueben Bolling) that responded to Bill O’Reilly’s election night claim that Obama’s win signaled the death of traditional America. According to O’Reilly, “the demographics are changing, it’s not a traditional American anymore.” Bolling wondered what would happen if Barack Hussein Obama traveled back in time to the world of Leave it to Beaver. In this imaginary scenario, Obama tells the Cleavers of his plan to raise the marginal tax rate on the wealthiest Americans, reduce the gap between CEO pay and that of the lowest paid employees, and bolster the social safety net. The “Beave” and his family point out that those features were already in place in their traditional 1960s America. “Golly, mister,” the Beave exclaims, “I think you’re bringing back traditional America.”