Posts tagged Utah
A Boeing strike could give the state’s UI fund a much bigger test
September 24, 2026 // This year, benefits paid for by employers and traditionally meant for workers who lose work through no fault of their own became available to people who are employed but who choose not to work, too. And the Washington state Employment Security Department told me that as of Sept. 14, 174 striking workers have been paid benefits so far in 2026, accounting for 814 paid weeks and $604,491 from the Unemployment Trust Fund. That is up surprisingly little from Aug. 5, when ESD reported 151 paid claimants, 741 paid weeks and $565,714. (I say “little” recognizing that even a dollar given to a person choosing not to work takes away from a fund that has been relied on as a safety net for workers who lose their jobs.)
Commentary: Are Unions Rising from the Political Grave?
September 21, 2026 // Here again, however, there may be less than meets the eye. Despite its surprising bipartisan support, the FLCA would raise significant constitutional questions if enacted. By relying on a government-mandated arbitration panel to resolve labor disputes, the law effectively empowers the state to impose contractual terms on private parties—a form of what constitutional lawyers call “state action.” As attorneys Alex MacDonald and Vinnie Vernuccio observe: “[S]tate action opens the door to a slew of constitutional requirements and restrictions, notably to protect rights of free speech and association.”
Government Unions Are Making a Comeback — and Taxpayers Will Pay the Price
September 15, 2026 // Taken together, those same four unions have added back more than 230,000 members since 2024, the Commonwealth Foundation reports. That’s a 3.5 percent jump, and it has wiped out most of what looked like a permanent decline. Two of the four unions, AFSCME and SEIU, now have more members than they did before Janus. Only one union, the NEA, is still losing members, but even that decline has slowed.
Boeing offers 10% raise to WA workers to head off union strike
September 14, 2026 // Boeing has issued its final contract proposal to SPEEA, covering over 16,000 engineers and technical workers. The deal offers an immediate 10% wage hike upon approval, a 4% raise in 2027, and guaranteed 4% minimum annual increases through 2030. SPEEA leadership is advising members to vote "Yes," though the official schedule for the ratification vote is yet to be announced.
Report: The Battle for Worker Freedom: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws
September 10, 2026 // Union executives are prioritizing recruitment. The fastest-growing category of public sector labor legislation expands collective bargaining into new workplaces. On the strength of these new laws, union executives are slowly replacing their membership losses since 2018. From 2018 to 2025, the country’s four largest government unions report a net decline in membership of 87,919, or 1.3 percent. However, they also report a collective gain of 232,502 members, or 3.5 percent since 2024. This report awards full letter-grade increases to Idaho (now A) and Louisiana (now B) due to their adoption of pro-worker labor reforms this past legislative session. However, the drops in grades—Nebraska (D), Nevada (D), and Rhode Island (F)—are the result of these states prioritizing union executives over workers and enacting laws helping unions recruit, politick, organize, and strike. Thirteen states now have an “A” or “A+” grade—up from twelve in the previous edition of this report—while six states earned an “F”—up from five over the same time period. Overall, the research finds 25 states fall below a “C.”
Op-ed: AI isn’t replacing workers. It’s creating bosses.
August 4, 2026 // Palagashvili posits that solo self-employment could be growing due to AI. The paper considers the industries with the highest AI adoption rates and likelihood of AI exposure: professional services, information, education, finance and insurance. It uses construction and wholesale trade as control groups, since those industries have low AI adoption and exposure.
Minimum Wage Myths are Flooding the Internet
July 27, 2026 // Salaries are a function of supply and demand, not government planning. Employers hire workers up to the point where the value of their labor justifies the wage, while workers decide whether to supply their labor based on the pay offered. As the Texas example shows, the true minimum wage is whatever the market decides, and in 2026 that’s almost never as low as $7.25. Minimum wages can also hurt the workers that they’re meant to help. California’s minimum wage is among the highest in the nation, and California now has the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states.
National park workers in the Mountain West are unionizing. More may follow
July 14, 2026 // Park rangers, scientists, and administrative staff are among the non-supervisory staff represented. Last year, workers at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks in California joined another union, the National Federation of Federal Employees.
Portable Benefits Win in Six More States
June 24, 2026 // A company willing to contribute toward benefits risks having the independent contractor reclassified as a traditional W2 employee, which brings new tax obligations, wage rules, and liability. Faced with that risk, most companies contribute nothing. Independent contractors are left to pay for benefits on their own, and many go without, with no safety net if they get sick, lose work, or grow old without savings. Portable benefits laws cut that knot. They establish that a voluntary contribution to a worker’s benefit account does not make the worker an employee. The account under this framework belongs to the worker, rather than the company, and follows them from one contract to the next. Contributions can fund health coverage, retirement savings, paid leave, disability protection, and emergency income, the protections a traditional job provides.
Why Independent Workers — and the Companies That Hire Them — Need Portable Benefits
June 5, 2026 // Instead, one theme comes through clearly: Workers want benefits without giving up their current, flexible careers. Surveys say the same thing. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that only 8.3 percent of independent workers prefer a traditional employment arrangement, while more than 80 percent prefer their current work arrangement. At the same time, 4 out of 5 want access to benefits. That’s why it’s so encouraging to see portable benefits gain momentum and bipartisan buy-in: Kansas and Utah are among the eight states that have enacted reforms, Hawaii and Connecticut are among those considering it, and legislation has appeared in Congress as well. Reforms are advancing in states that prioritize the business environment and in others that focus on worker protection, because they expand access to benefits while remaining voluntary and market-oriented.