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Issues
Working Wisconsin Protecting Workers
Our nation’s workers form the backbone
of our economy. I’ve always been committed to helping American
workers and employers create high quality jobs that provide
basic safeguards for workers including adequate and equal
pay, collective bargaining rights, a safe and healthy working
environment, and access to affordable health care.
Minimum Wage
Far too many Americans are working for
wages that keep them below or at the federal poverty line.
Americans who are working full time, fifty-two weeks a year
should be able to afford health care, housing, and child care,
yet individuals who work full time and earn the minimum wage
often cannot afford these basic necessities. For this reason,
I have been a longtime cosponsor of efforts in the Senate
to raise the minimum wage. I am pleased that, in 2007, Congress
took a long overdue step to help working families by enacting
a minimum wage increase to $7.25 over the next two years.
Right to Organize
I support the right of workers to form
and join unions and collectively bargain for better working
conditions. Statistics show that union membership can help
lead to better wages, benefits, and working conditions for
workers. To provide more Americans with the opportunity to
improve their standard of living, I am a cosponsor of the
Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that will strengthen
the collective bargaining process for workers and implement
stronger penalties for employers who violate the rights of
employees attempting to form a union. This bill sends the
message that employer intimidation of American workers will
not be tolerated.
Family Leave
Workers should never have to choose between
reporting to work and staying home to care for their own health
or that of a sick child. I was proud to cosponsor and cast
one of my first votes as a U.S. Senator for the Family and
Medical Leave Act, which allows covered employees to take
time off work to care for a sick child, an ailing parent,
or their own serious health condition, or to take leave from
their employment following the birth or adoption of a child
without fear of losing their jobs. I am a cosponsor of the
Healthy Families Act, which will require employers with at
least 15 employees to provide seven days of paid sick leave
per year for full time employees.
Fair Pay
Congress must pass legislation to require
equal pay for equal work, as unfair wage disparities based
on race, gender, and national origin still affect far too
many Americans. I am a long-time cosponsor of the Fair Pay
Act and Paycheck Fairness Act, which would help ensure that
employers do not discriminate in pay and enhance enforcement
of equal pay requirements.
I am also a cosponsor of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, which
would turn back a recent Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter
v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., by clarifying that the laws
against pay discrimination apply to every paycheck or other
compensation a worker receives rather than only the original
decision by the employer to discriminate. This legislation
returns us to where we were before the Court’s recent decision
and also maintains current limits on how much an employer
would owe if it has been found to have committed pay discrimination.
Safety on the Job
We must commit to stringent safety standards
to protect hardworking Americans on the job. I am a cosponsor
of the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which would strengthen
the Occupational Health and Safety Act in a number of ways,
including expanding the Act’s coverage, providing for increased
penalties for willful violations by employers, increasing
transparency, protecting whistleblowers, and clarifying that
employers must provide personal protective equipment for employees.
According to the Department of Labor,
more than 2.5 million Wisconsinites were injured on the job
in 2006. While some workplace injuries are accidents, others
are avoidable, and it is critical that the government and
employers do their best to ensure the safest possible work
environment for workers.
Assisting Communities Facing Job
Loss
Some communities face the difficult task
of readjusting the local economy in the face of plant closings
or mass layoffs. Unfortunately, the legislation meant to help
workers and communities prepare for layoffs and plant closings,
the WARN Act, is riddled with loopholes making enforcement
extremely difficult.
I am a cosponsor of the Forewarn Act, which would help to
close these loopholes, hold employers accountable to their
communities, and lengthen the required notice employers have
to give workers and local communities when they have decided
to close a work site. This legislation can help our cities
better prepare for the tremendous impact of layoffs.
Measuring our Economy to Protect
Workers
An underlying problem with our efforts
to protect workers is the disconnect between the economic
information that is traditionally collected and reported and
the economic reality many American families face. We can’t
just look at our gross domestic product and sales receipts.
We need to better understand what is going on in Americans’
households and take those factors into account when putting
together an accurate picture of the U.S. economy. If we can’t
measure what most matters to American families, we are not
measuring the right things – and we are less able to come
up with solutions to Americans’ problems.
As part of my E4 Initiative, I introduced
legislation to help our economic measures better reflect the
circumstances of American workers. My legislation establishes
a bipartisan commission of eight economic experts to examine
existing government economic data and identify the need for
new information, more accurate methodologies and better ways
to report a more accurate and reliable picture of the economic
reality American households face.
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