Posts tagged taxes
GOP senators unveil legislation to cut taxes on overtime pay in line with Trump’s campaign promise
May 7, 2025 // The Overtime Wages Tax Relief Act, introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), would allow individuals to deduct up to $10,000 in overtime pay from their tax bill. Married couples would be able to deduct up to $20,000. The legislation includes phase-out eligibility based on income. So, once individual adjusted gross income reaches $100,000, or $200,000 for married couples, the deduction is reduced by $50 for every $1,000 in earnings above the threshold.
Liya Palagashvili: The Portable Benefits Revolution: How Did We Get Here?
May 1, 2025 // Senator Bill Cassidy just put flexible benefits on the map. This is the story of how a niche policy idea climbed to the top of the Congressional agenda.
Union Workers Turn on Trump Tariffs: ‘Direct Attack on the Working Class’
April 29, 2025 // While the ILWU said that decades of free trade agreements had "negatively impacted American workers," it criticized Trump's approach to addressing this as "haphazard and destructive," while warning that the costs of food, energy and household goods would rise as a result. Similar warnings have been issued by associations representing the retail and home construction sectors, while the United Auto Workers union (UAW)—which had previously voice its support for "aggressive tariff action to protect American manufacturing jobs"—has recently offered a more critical view on Trump's import duties.
LETTER: Congress must reject proposed job-killing labor legislation
April 20, 2025 // However, a new threat to Kansas business owners has emerged in the form of a legislative framework that the Institute for the American Worker has dubbed the “PRO Act Lite,” modeled after the failed policies of Senator Bernie Sanders and other progressive lawmakers. While it may come with a new label, the substance remains the same. This proposal would drive up labor costs, stifle economic opportunity, and make it significantly harder for employers to create jobs.
State workers blast Ferguson’s furlough plan, calling it a betrayal
March 20, 2025 // Front-line workers and educators feel betrayed and frustrated that the man they helped elect wants to reduce their income while declining to endorse new or higher taxes on the state’s wealthiest individuals and largest corporations. “They feel they were lied to. We have to stop being the ones having the budgets balanced on our backs,” said Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, following a rally Monday at the Capitol held by those pushing the Legislature to tax the wealthy and big businesses to erase the multi-billion dollar deficit. Yestramski called Ferguson a “pseudo Democrat” and added: “Budgets are moral documents. This is his moral test.
Opinion: A kidnappers bargain: linking CT union and nonprofit interests
November 26, 2024 // Under Osten’s plan, state funding for certain nonprofits would automatically increase whenever state unions negotiate pay increases for themselves. At first, this seems like a solid strategy for ensuring that that nonprofits get funded. Actually, it is a clever tactic to turn nonprofit workers into a sympathetic de facto lobbying group for Connecticut’s dominant special interest — the government unions — despite having no other relationship to them. This alignment could incentivize nonprofits, which traditionally focus on service delivery, to shift towards advocacy for increased state spending —effectively lobbying for higher taxes and more government spending. What’s more, nonprofits would have a vested interest in supporting higher wages, regardless of the state’s fiscal condition or the actual needs of the programs they administer.
Amazon workers plan global protests and strikes on Black Friday
November 25, 2024 // According to organizers, Make Amazon Pay will include participants from more than 80 unions, environmental groups, and activist organizations such as Greenpeace, 350.org, and Amazon Workers International. During the protests, workers will demand that Amazon pay fair wages to employees and commit to environmental sustainability efforts. Workers will also call on the company to pay their fair share of taxes as well as respect employees' rights to unionize.
Unions pursue law changes to boost membership
September 8, 2024 // “The overarching theme is that the unions have really responded to the membership losses since JANUS to drive up union membership,” Osborne said. In the JANUS decision, courts held that unions could no longer collect “fair share” dues from non-members who benefit from collective bargaining agreements. Follow-up litigation has challenged the cumbersome process many former members had to overcome to leave the union and recoup dues improperly withheld. In the report, states known as union “strongholds” scored lower than others that have enacted collective bargaining reforms.
Minimum Wages Wreak Labor Havoc
August 9, 2024 // Let’s consider the recent experience of California. It raised the minimum wage of restaurant workers from $16 to $20 per hour. In just the first two months after the law took effect, 10,000 jobs were destroyed and prices at restaurants have risen. In 2019, lawmakers in New York City passed a nearly identical piece of legislation. They increased the minimum wage from $13 to $15 per hour (equivalent to $18.72 today). The result was eerily similar. 90 percent of restaurants surveyed had raised prices, nearly 77 percent reduced employee hours, and 36 percent eliminated jobs. As then-president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, pointed out, “[small businesses are] cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down.”
OPINION: Republicans Don’t Need to Embrace Union Leaders to Win Union Workers
July 1, 2024 // Republicans should appeal directly to union members with commonsense policies. Working-class Americans are among the hardest hit by Bidenomics and its painful inflation. Republicans should reach them with policies that will reduce the cost of living and increase job opportunities. The GOP should simultaneously and forcefully oppose the union-backed demands with a message of spending restraint. Additionally, the GOP should extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025 — spurring a new era of job creation and wage growth.