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236 Articles and Resources. Go to: [Next 50] [End]

Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Feb 27, 2013	Why It’s Smart to Be Reckless on Wall Street QUOTE: That asymmetry in pay (money for profits, flat for losses) is the engine behind many of Wall Street’s mistakes. It rewards short-term gains without regard to long-term consequences. The results? The over-reliance on excessive leverage, banks that are loaded with opaque financial products, and trading models that are flawed. Regulation is largely toothless if banks and their employees have the financial incentive to be reckless.	Scientific American
Dec 27, 2012	Hobby Lobby faces millions in fines for bucking Obamacare QUOTE: Craft store giant Hobby Lobby... opposes providing some contraceptives to employees through its company health care plan on religious grounds, saying some contraceptive products, like the morning after pill, equate to abortion. Hobby Lobby and affiliate Mardel, a Christian bookstore chain, sued the federal government for violating their owners' religious freedom and ability to freely exercise their religion.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Sep 09, 2012	Fighting for Bangladesh Labor, and Ending Up in Pauper’s Grave QUOTE: For years, mutual suspicion has defined the relationship between the labor federation and the Bangladeshi establishment. Citing labor abuses, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is currently petitioning Washington to overturn trade preferences for Bangladesh, infuriating Bangladeshi leaders and casting suspicions on the domestic labor groups nurtured by the federation, including those where Mr. Islam worked.	New York Times
Oct 04, 2011	Tracking factory slaves across Asia QUOTE: We traveled to Cambodia planning to tell the story of an escape from modern-day slave labor but what we found were tales of more women trapped in debt-bondage in Malaysia. In Cambodia, we found the women who had escaped, but we also learned about dozens of other workers stuck in similar circumstances, unable to get home unless they paid off their "debt" to a recruitment agency.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Sep 01, 2011	Age Bias in IT: the Reality Behind the Rumors: Is high tech really that tough on older workers? Or are they simply not pulling their weight in an industry that never stops innovating? QUOTE: Age bias is "something that no [employer] talks about. But it's a reality in tech that if you're 45 years of age and still writing C code or Cobol code and making $150,000 a year, the likelihood is that you won't be employed very long"...	Computerworld
Jul 08, 2011	As Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Legal, Some Choices May Be Lost QUOTE: Now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in New York, at least a few large companies are requiring their employees to tie the knot if they want their partners to qualify for health insurance....But some gay and lesbian advocates are arguing that the change may have come too soon: some couples may face complications, since their unions are not recognized by the federal government.	New York Times
Jun 21, 2011	Indian Company Under Scrutiny Over U.S. Visas QUOTE: A giant Indian outsourcing company with thousands of employees in the United States is facing an expanding federal investigation prompted by claims from an American whistle-blower that it misused short-term visitors’ visas to bring in low-cost workers from India. Accusations that the company, Infosys Technologies, repeatedly violated the terms of business visitor visas...	New York Times
May 23, 2011	Union Effort Turns Its Focus to Target QUOTE: Interviews with 10 of [Target’s] employees suggest that an important issue behind the unionization drive is frustration about being assigned too few hours of work, sometimes just one or two days a week...too few hours to qualify for the company’s health plan.	New York Times
May 20, 2011	For Gay Employees, an Equalizer QUOTE: a growing number of companies have taken it upon themselves to make life a little more equal for their gay employees. These companies are reaching into their own pockets to pay for an extra tax that their gay employees owe on their partners’ health insurance — something that their married heterosexual co-workers don’t have to worry about because the federal government recognizes them as an economic unit.	New York Times
May 13, 2011	Why 401(k)’s Should Offer Index Funds (Your Money) QUOTE: These 401(k) plans lack index funds even though their low expenses and breadth make them the very definition of cheap and risk-conscious. Instead, too many employees must choose among actively managed funds. Those investments tend to have higher costs, which eat away at returns.	New York Times
Apr 25, 2011	Public Pensions, Once Off Limits, Face Budget Cuts QUOTE: Some private sector workers… resent that the pensions of public workers enjoy stronger legal protections. But government workers... say that it would be unfair — and in many cases, very likely illegal — to change the rules in the middle of the game.	New York Times
Apr 24, 2011	Flying the Flag, Fleeing the State QUOTE: Thanks to a system of ship registration called “flags of convenience,” it is all too easy for unscrupulous ship owners to get away with criminal behavior. They have evaded prosecution for environmental damage like oil spills, as well as poor labor conditions, forcing crews to work like slaves without adequate pay or rest.	New York Times
Apr 21, 2011	Your tomato’s possible ties to slavery QUOTE: More than 1,200 victims of human trafficking picking tomatoes in Florida's fields… These slaves often work for 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week… Tomato pickers in Florida are paid less than two pennies for each pound of tomatoes they pick.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Mar 09, 2011	Wisconsin Senate Limits Bargaining by Public Workers QUOTE: Democrats, meanwhile, condemned the move as an attack on working families, a violation of open meetings requirements (most of them did not know there was to be a vote until not long before), and a virtual firebomb in state that already found itself politically polarized and consumed with recall efforts, large scale protests and fury from public workers.	New York Times
Dec 15, 2010	Begging for Your Pay QUOTE: Chasing after money is an excruciating experience....an overriding, constant sense of anxiety. Of course, that’s what the freelancer experience is”....some expectation of being paid. That’s not the same for many people doing construction or domestic work....Wagoner’s clients can’t fire off an e-mail or probe accounts payable when their bosses run away. How does one chase after money when all you have is the first name and the cell phone number of some fly-by-night contractor, and maybe the license plate number that you copied off the back of his work truck? How do you negotiate payment in a language that is not your own?	New York Times
Oct 28, 2010	On Wall Street: All Reward, No Risk QUOTE: For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Wall Street bankers, traders and executives get paid so much money year after year for doing jobs that rarely require them to innovate, enlighten or put their own capital at risk, and have the nasty habit of periodically sinking our economy.	New York Times
Jun 21, 2010	Gay Workers Will Get Time to Care for Partner’s Sick Child QUOTE: President Obama will soon expand the rights of gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners...	New York Times
Jun 18, 2010	Supreme Court rules on employer monitoring of cellphone, computer conversations QUOTE: A hesitant Supreme Court waded cautiously into a question that arises daily in workplaces and offices across the country: whether employers have the right to look over the shoulders of workers who use company computers and cellphones for personal communication. In the first ruling of its kind, the justices said they do, as long as there is a "legitimate work-related purpose" to monitor them.	Washington Post
Jun 03, 2010	Report Warned Wal-Mart of Risks Before Bias Suit QUOTE: More than six years before the biggest sex discrimination lawsuit in history was filed against Wal-Mart Stores, the company hired a prominent law firm to examine its vulnerability to just such a suit....found widespread gender disparities in pay and promotion at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores and urged the company to take basic steps — like posting every job opening and creating specific goals to promote women and minorities — to avoid liability.	New York Times
May 14, 2010	A Toolkit for Women Seeking a Raise (Your Money) QUOTE: Even now, when women represent half the work force, they’re still paid considerably less than men — and part of that pay gap may be a result of what happens at the salary negotiation table. That’s assuming that women make it to the table, since research shows that they are less likely to ask for raises. Even when they do, their requests may be perceived as overly demanding or less agreeable.	New York Times
Apr 19, 2010	Justices Get Personal Over Privacy of Messages QUOTE: The question in a case argued Monday in the Supreme Court sounded both irresistible and important: Did a California police department violate the Constitution by reading sexually explicit text messages sent by an officer on a department-issued pager?	New York Times
Mar 23, 2010	In Health Care Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality QUOTE: [over the past three decades] government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor. Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction.	New York Times
Mar 19, 2010	A Supersized Custody Battle Over Marvel Superheroes QUOTE: conflict between intellectual property lawyers and media companies that, in Mr. Toberoff’s view, have made themselves vulnerable by building franchises atop old creations. So-called branded entertainment — anything based on superheroes, comic strips, TV cartoons or classic toys — may be easier to sell to audiences, but the intellectual property may also ultimately belong in full or in part to others.	New York Times
Feb 25, 2010	Fixing independent programmers' no-win scenario: A hostile business climate is stifling entrepreneurship in software development, and the U.S. economy pays the price QUOTE: certain classes of workers, including anyone who engages as a "computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work," are considered de facto employees for tax purposes...The IRS can impose significant tax penalties on companies who hire such workers as contractors rather than full employees, a fact that can make it extremely difficult for self-employed programmers to find work.	InfoWorld
Nov 08, 2009	Swine flu: Without paid sick leave, workers won't stay home: Many workers choose to work if they don't have paid sick leave. Now, partly because of swine flu, 15 states are considering laws to make paid sick leave mandatory. QUOTE: Nearly half of all American workers do not have paid sick leave, and half of these are more likely to go to work feeling unwell – or send an ill child to school – rather than take an unpaid day off.	Christian Science Monitor
Oct 16, 2009	Wellness Incentives Could Create Health-Care Loophole: Workers Who Fail Medical Tests Could Pay More QUOTE: By more than doubling the maximum penalties that companies can apply to employees who flunk medical evaluations, the [new healthcare] legislation could put workers under intense financial pressure to lose weight, stop smoking or even lower their cholesterol,	Washington Post
Oct 13, 2009	Latin America's worst wage gap for women and minorities? Powerhouse Brazil QUOTE: ...Brazil sits at the bottom of a list of 18 regional countries when it comes to how much women and minorities are paid for the same job a white man does.	Christian Science Monitor
Oct 02, 2009	Dark and Bitter: Food workers increasingly exist in a legal limbo with no protections for wages, benefits, job security, or life and limb. Why are employers like Hershey off the hook? QUOTE: In this new world, workers are paid only when needed. There are no more messy layoffs -- merely the end of an assignment. All the risks are shifted to workers. Staffing agencies often tout their services as giving employees flexibility and variety, but [Nik] Theodore's research shows they are worse off by many measures.	American Prospect
Sep 17, 2009	Break promises if you like but treat your workers well QUOTE: Workers don't care so much about whether their employers deliver on specific promises, according to the latest research in organisational psychology. What matters most are the rewards and opportunities they end up getting...	New Scientist
Sep 07, 2009	U.S. expands H-1B fraud case against IT services firm QUOTE: The U.S. government late last month filed a new, expanded 18-count indictment that now seeks $4.9 million from a New Jersey IT services firm it has accused of fraudulently using H-1B visas.	Computerworld
Sep 06, 2009	How to Negotiate a Severance Package QUOTE: As the national unemployment rate nears 10 percent, many Americans are doing something they had never imagined they would do: negotiate a severance package.	Washington Post
Sep 06, 2009	IRS asked to repeal cell phone tax: Businesses are urging the IRS to cease taxing the personal use of work-issued cell phones. QUOTE: A message is being conveyed by lobbying groups for a wide array of industries... cell phones are so ubiquitous and have become such an essential business tool that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the line between professional and personal use [to document for income tax purposes].	Hill
Sep 01, 2009	Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says QUOTE: Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study ...	New York Times
Sep 01, 2009	Call to Jury Duty Strikes Fear of Financial Ruin QUOTE: Few people like jury duty. But for many people squeezed by the recession, a jury summons holds a new fear: financial ruin.	New York Times
Aug 16, 2009	Bad economy sparks more complaints of wage theft QUOTE: Complaints of wage theft have risen as the economy tumbled. Allegations range from underpayment to not getting paid at all.	USA TODAY
Jun 13, 2009	Employees May Be Taxed for Texting If IRS Updates Work Cellphone Rules QUOTE: ...IRS would more strictly enforce an existing law that classifies company-issued cellphones as a taxable benefit -- an idea decried by employers and wireless companies who argue that mobile phones are now essential tools in the workplace...	Washington Post
Jun 12, 2009	IRS Seeks to Simplify Workers' Cellphone Tax Law QUOTE: the Internal Revenue Service is weighing whether a portion of a work-related cellphone bill should be taxed as income....The law was designed to prevent employees from using employee-issued cellphones for personal calls and then writing them off as a work-related tax deduction.	Washington Post
Mar 09, 2009	Montgomery Police Seeking Disability Find System Weighted in Their Favor QUOTE: If a Montgomery County [Maryland] police officer can show that his bad knee limits his ability to chase a suspect through the woods... he gets the same tax-free benefits as an officer paralyzed from a gunshot,	Washington Post
Jan 09, 2009	Government fights slave labor in Brazil QUOTE: A recruiter known as a "gato," or cat, plumbs the slums and other poor areas of the vast country and gets people to agree to jobs in distant places. Once separated from home and family, workers are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, such as being told they owe money for transportation, food, housing and other services. "This is known as debt bondage, which also fits official definitions of slavery,"...	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jan 06, 2009	The Law: Changes in Retirement Plans. The issue: Is an employer liable if employees don’t understand changes in retirement plans? QUOTE: older workers like Broderick who are switched from a defined benefit plan to a cash-balance plan generally face a significant decrease in benefits as a result....Employers must clearly communicate changes in employee retirement plans. If you’re confused, take the initiative and contact your company’s human resources officer.	AARP
Dec 24, 2008	Wal-Mart Settles 63 Lawsuits Over Wages QUOTE: Wal-Mart said on Tuesday that it would pay at least $352 million, and possibly far more, to settle lawsuits across the country claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock. Several lawyers described it as the largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations....The newly settled cases involved hundreds of thousands of current and former hourly employees.	New York Times
Dec 20, 2008	Some Say UAW's Sacrifices Look More Like Surrender QUOTE: But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender....But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender....	Washington Post
Dec 18, 2008	On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real QUOTE: Merrill’s record earnings in 2006 — $7.5 billion — turned out to be a mirage. The company has since lost three times that amount, largely because the mortgage investments that supposedly had powered some of those profits plunged in value. Unlike the earnings, however, the bonuses have not been reversed.	New York Times
Dec 12, 2008	Auto Bailout Talks Collapse as Senate Deadlocks Over Wages: Without a Deal, Carmakers Face Bankruptcy Threat QUOTE: The legislation would have provided emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler, which have said they face imminent collapse without federal help. The high-stakes talks broke down over when the wages of union workers would be slashed to the same level as those paid to nonunion workers at U.S. plants of foreign automakers...	Washington Post
Dec 09, 2008	Accountability? Check. Authority? Not so much. QUOTE: I have complete accountability for the company's network infrastructure and its data, but no authority over any of these...The employees treat their work computers as their own personal computers.	InfoWorld
Nov 20, 2008	Hurt by Losses, Pension Funds Criticize Rules QUOTE: Stung by outsize investment losses, some of the nation’s biggest companies are pushing Congress to roll back rules requiring them to put more money into their pension funds, just two years after President Bush signed a law meant to strengthen the pension system....With cash now in short supply for companies, they are asking Congress to excuse them from having to replenish the required amounts.	New York Times
Nov 13, 2008	School Chief Takes on Tenure, and Stirs a Fight QUOTE: Ms. Rhee has proposed spectacular raises of as much as $40,000, financed by private foundations, for teachers willing to give up tenure....Ms. Rhee said she could no longer wait for a union response to her proposal, first outlined last summer, and announced an effort to identify and fire ineffective teachers, including those with tenure.	New York Times
Sep 29, 2008	Crisis of Care on the Front Line of Health QUOTE: The problem is that in this era of managed care and reimbursements dictated by Medicare and other insurers, doctors don’t get much compensation for talking to patients. They get paid primarily for procedures, from blood tests to surgery, and for the number of patients they see.	New York Times
Sep 17, 2008	Outrage: Widow Loses Out on Spouse’s Insurance QUOTE: ...Spherion changed life insurance providers while Amschwand was ill. He requested a copy of the new policy numerous times but was told that it wasn’t ready yet and that he shouldn’t worry. Amschwand never saw the policy, which his widow received a year after his death. And only then did Bellinger discover that the new policy contained a clause requiring employees to work at least one day during the policy period...	AARP
Sep 08, 2008	Montgomery Disability Practices Under Fire: Report Calls Patterns Seemingly 'Abusive' ABSTRACT: More than 60 percent of Montgomery County police officers who retired in the past four years are collecting disability payments, including one who was a top finisher in a fitness contest a year after retiring on disability....Inspector General Thomas J. Dagley cited "questionable practices" and patterns or behaviors that a "prudent person would consider abusive."	Washington Post

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