Latest Edition
Monday, September 21, 2026
Civil Rights at WorkThe mass minimum wage held at $15.00 per hour throughout 2024, unchanged for the first time in five years, after the final scheduled increase under the state's 2018 "Grand Bargain" legislation took effect on January 1, 2023.
Workers & the EconomyOregon's minimum wage is set by a CPI-indexed formula that automatically adjusts three separate geographic rates every July 1, making it one of the few state wage systems that tracks inflation without requiring annual legislative action. As of July 1, 2024, those rates stand at $15.
Union OrganizingMore than three dozen Democratic and independent nominees with backgrounds as labor union representatives or members are running for open House and Senate seats in the 2026 midterm elections, according to a Guardian analysis published September 19.
Labor Policy & LawNorth Carolina is one of 25 states where the minimum wage sits at the federal floor of $7.25 per hour, unchanged since July 2009, with a preemption law that blocks every one of its 553 municipalities from setting a higher rate for private-sector workers.
Union OrganizingEleven workers at an AutoZone store in White Plains, New York, will vote beginning September 25 on whether to join United Auto Workers Local 259 and form the first union at the nation's largest auto parts retailer, according to reporting in The Guardian.
Workers & the EconomyCalifornia's minimum wage in 2026 operates as a three-tier system: a CPI-indexed statewide floor of $16.90 per hour, local city and county rates reaching $20.34 in Emeryville, and industry-specific mandates pushing healthcare workers to $25.00 per hour.
Healthcare & LaborNational Nurses United organized civil disobedience actions on August 27 in eight cities, with registered nurses blocking traffic to demand hospitals and elected officials cut ties with artificial intelligence giant Palantir Technologies, according to a report published by ScheerPost.
Healthcare & LaborThe minimum wage in the state of Illinois is $15.00 per hour for workers 18 and older, the rate that took effect January 1, 2025, completing a phased schedule of six annual increases. But Illinois doesn't operate on a single number.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Faster Labor Contracts Act on September 15, legislation designed to expedite union contract negotiations for newly organized workplaces, according to an analysis published in the Las Vegas Sun.
Labor Policy & LawMaryland's minimum wage is $15.00 per hour for every employer in the state, regardless of business size, a rate that took effect January 1, 2024 under the Fair Wage Act of 2023.
