RISEP

The Florida Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Good for the Economy

RISEP — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:52:27 +0000

This report explains the impact of the minimum wage in Florida, including which groups and industries benefit, the impact on employment, and how Florida compares with other states. Some key findings:

- The vast majority of minimum wage workers are adults working full time – only 10% of minimum wage workers are teenagers, and only 10% work less than 20 hours per week. One out of three are parents.

- A full-time minimum wage worker in Florida earns only 82% of the poverty line for a family of three.

- When the state minimum wage was implemented in 2005 there was no evidence of a negative impact on overall employment or in the most heavily impacted industries, retail trade and accomodation and food services.

- Minimum wage workers are largely concentrated in a few industries: 47% are employed in retail trade, accomodation and food services.

- The majority of minimum wage workers are women, and nearly half are people of color.

Wage Theft: How Millions of Dollars are Stolen from Florida’s Workforce

RISEP — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:33:02 +0000

The report finds that many of Florida’s workforce fall outside of federal labor laws; thus, other enforcement mechanisms such as Miami Dade’s Wage Theft Ordinance are needed to ensure that employees, communities, and local governments will not miss out on millions of stolen wages that are owed to them, and that unscrupulous employers will be penalized for breaking labor laws.The report estimates that nearly 60-90 million dollars are stolen from Florida’s workforce, impacting communities, law abiding employers and local and state economies.

The release of the report comes at a time when the Florida legislature is debating a House and Senate bill that would eliminate the Miami-Dade Wage Theft Ordinance, which has collected nearly $400,000 in stolen wages from employees–and preempt any other local governments trying to find solutions to wage theft in their communities.

State and Federal Unemployment Benefit Cuts Cost Millions for Workers and Florida’s Economy

RISEP — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:30:43 +0000

As of October Florida’s unemployment rate was 10.3%, the lowest unemployment level since mid- 2009. This unemployment rate represents 955,000 jobless people out of a labor force of 9,228,000.This December unemployed Floridians face imminent cuts to their benefits both from the state and federal governments. If congress does not renew the Extended Benefits (EB) and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programs by January 1, 2012, tens of thousands of Floridians currently receiving unemployment benefits funded by the federal government will be cut off. Approximately 131,000 Floridians would be cut off from benefits, representing the loss of $30 million per week for the state’s economy. Changes to Florida’s law which reduced the maximum number of weeks from 26 to 23 will further reduce the number of weeks of federally funded benefits that unemployed workers will be eligible for. At an average weekly benefit of $231.37, the impact of the state changes and the reduction of federal weeks it will trigger amounts to a loss of $2,776 per individual, or $311 million a year based on the number of exhaustions in the most recent 12 months. If Congress decides to dramatically reduce the amount of federally funded weeks as well, the impact could be over $1.5 billion in 2012.

Poverty increases for third straight year in 2010

RISEP — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:59:45 +0000

Since the recession began in 2007, Florida has seen the largest increase in poverty in the nation. Three million Floridians, roughly 1 in 6 people, were living below poverty levels in 2010. In 2010, close to 1 in 4 children in the state were living in poverty.

FIU Community Welcomes Local Economic Justice Activists and Celebrates Labor Center’s 40th Anniversary

RISEP — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:18:37 +0000

On September 6, RISEP hosted a Labor Day forum with researchers and community activists who talked about the state of the economy and what communities are doing to organize for a fairer economy. Carlos A. Sanchez, an FIU graduate (‘11) and economics major, gave an overview of RISEP’s annual State of Working Florida report which showed how the state’s economy continued to worsen in 2010 particularly for certain groups of workers including young workers, African Americans, men, and those without a college degree. Jeanette Smith, FIU graduate student in Global and Sociocultural Studies and director of the South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice, discussed the four year long campaign against wage theft by a coalition of worker and immigrant justice groups which has resulted in Miami-Dade County assisting in the recovery of nearly $400,000 in unpaid wages for workers. Cynthia Hernandez, FIU graduate (‘06) and RISEP researcher discussed the organizing efforts of domestic workers for better treatment on the job and her work with local women worker activists on a national participatory survey project. Hashim Yeomans-Benford, FIU (‘07) and Mark Bryant discussed their work on Community Benefits Agreements and ways to create more economic opportunities for Liberty City residents. Jacob Coker-Dukowitz shared his experience as a student organizer at the University of Miami supporting the Justice for Janitors campaign in which custodial workers at UM won the right to form a union. The forum was the first in a series of events celebrating the Labor Center’s 40th anniversary, and RISEP looks forward to bringing hosting more conversations between researchers, activists, students and faculty on local community engagement issues.

Job Announcement

RISEP — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:09:30 +0000

Associate Research Director

Florida International University, Miami

The Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP), the research arm of the Center for Labor Research and Studies invites applications for a non-tenure-track research faculty position to be appointed Fall 2011. We are searching broadly for candidates to fill the position of associate research director with expertise in labor movements, the sociology of work, and cognate fields. Possible areas of focus might include: immigration, political economy, public policy, labor history and law, organizing and collective bargaining. The ideal candidate would be trained in multiple social science research methodologies, have excellent writing skills, and grant proposal development and writing experience, as well as experience with one or more of RISEP’s research foci. RISEP’s areas of research focus are: 1. Workers Rights and Economic Justice; 2. Civic Engagement, Human Rights and Social Movements; and 3. Equitable Urban Development. The Labor Center offers a full curriculum in Labor Studies and the successful candidate will make teaching contributions to that curriculum, offering one or two courses on topics such as Labor and the U. S. Economy, Organizing, Labor and Globalization, Labor History, Labor Law, and/or Collective Bargaining. RISEP has a strong commitment to applied research in collaboration with progressive community based organizations and grant development, teaching and undergraduate intern mentoring. Research is geared toward partnering with the campaigns, movements and strategies to improve the conditions of Florida’s working men and women, their families and communities.

Applicants should have firm expectations of a completed Ph.D. in Sociology or another appropriate social science by January 2012 and be eager to join a highly committed, lively and hard-working staff of applied social science researchers. Applications received before October 30 will receive full consideration. The starting date for this position is December 1, 2011 or soon thereafter. Applications should include a CV, letter of application, publications or samples of written work. If the candidate is invited to interview, three letters of reference will also be required. Electronic applications are strongly preferred and can be sent to Carol Dutton Stepick at Stepick@fiu.edu or paper copies may be mailed to her at RISEP; Center for Labor Research and Studies; Florida International University; Miami, Florida 33199. The successful candidate will be subject to a background check, including a criminal history check. Florida International University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages minorities and women to apply. This position is eligible to join the faculty union and receive all benefits available to in unit faculty.

Florida jobs deficit still near 1 million

RISEP — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:12:15 +0000

Two years after the official end of the recession, Florida still has a jobs deficit of nearly 981,000 jobs, and some groups of workers are faring far worse than others in the economy, according to the annual State of Working Florida report to be released on Sunday by the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University.

In 2010 almost 20% of the labor force was underemployed, with younger, less educated, male, and African American or Hispanic workers more likely to fall into this group. Unemployment continued to increase for nearly all groups in 2010, with the exception of workers with a Bachelor’s degree who actually experienced a slight decrease in unemployment.

State of Working Florida 2011

RISEP — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:03:40 +0000

This report focuses on how workers are faring in Florida’s economy, and the overriding theme in 2011 is the stark contrasts in the impact of the recession on different groups of workers. While higher educated workers in higher paying jobs appear to be doing fairly well and even gaining ground in wages, lower educated workers, African American workers, and young workers, are still facing extremely high unemployment rates and wage decreases. Florida was one of the hardest hit states during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, which was brought on by the housing and financial market crashes, and the state still has a jobs deficit of 981,000, the number needed to make up losses from the recession and keep up with population growth.

Economic Update: Job growth slows in June, recent gains mostly in low-wage industries

RISEP — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:15:50 +0000

The last five months have seen steady declines in Florida’s unemployment rate, from 12% in December to 10.6% in May. The improvement leveled off in June, when the unemployment rate was unchanged. Since January 2010 the state has gained 85,500 jobs, according to seasonally adjusted figures, the longest and largest continuous gain since the recession began more than three years ago. However the state has a long way to go to make up the over 700,000 jobs lost since the start of the recession.

The good signs of growth are largely concentrated in a few industries, with three industries responsible for 60% of the gains. The top job creator, Accommodation and Food Services added nearly 20,000 jobs, or 23% of the total. Health care continued to add jobs as it has through most of the recession, and Administrative and Waste Services added over 16,000 jobs. Some smaller sectors such as Real Estate and Arts have seen significant improvements as well, as has Manufacturing, while others such as Wholesale Trade, Education and Information lost jobs.

While the addition of jobs is sorely needed in the state, the majority of the jobs created are in industries that pay below the average wage in the state. The industry that added the most jobs, Accommodation and Food Services, also has the lowest average annual wage at $18,842 per year. Two-thirds of the jobs added in the last five months were in below-average paying industries. The top job creators in above-average paying industries were Health Care and Manufacturing, which together accounted for 23% of jobs added since January.

Click at right to see full update with charts.

Unemployment for Blacks, Hispanics in Florida saw sharp increase again in 2010

RISEP — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:34:56 +0000

Cuts to unemployment benefit weeks would have disparate impact on workers of color, given the large difference in unemployment rates for Black and Hispanic workers. Average annual unemployment for all groups continued to go up from 2009 to 2010, but Black and Hispanic workers had much larger increases than White non-Hispanic workers. Hispanic unemployment increased the most, by 2 percentage points, and unemployment increased by 1.4 points for Black workers, compared with just 0.2 points for White non-Hispanic workers. It appears that the situation for White non-Hispanic workers is leveling off, while Hispanic and Black workers remain in crisis. Blacks had the highest unemployment rate at 16.8%, almost double that for White non-Hispanic residents. The rate for Hispanic residents was 13.6%, half again as much as for White non-Hispanic workers. A proposal currently before the legislature ties the number of weeks available to the current unemployment rate. If the unemployment rate were to fall to 8%, the maximum number of weeks will go down to 18 weeks, from 26 where it is now. But if overall unemployment falls to 8%, it could still be 11.5% for Black workers, who would still experience benefit cuts although it remains much more difficult for them to find work.