Every week in a local newspaper I read, there’s the same story — someone was arrested for shoplifting, usually at Marden’s. These petty crime stories are often written as a testament to alert store security or fast-acting police, but between the lines you can usually read a narrative of poverty and addiction. Every time I…
Berndt Erikson and a co-worker quit their jobs at Dollar General in Eliot, Maine earlier this month because they were fed up with low pay and being overworked. Erikson was also angry about the exploitation of their shift manager, who was forced to work 70-hour weeks because of a staffing shortage. The manager, classified as…
An economist under former President Barack Obama says a bill being considered by Maine lawmakers would make a quantifiable difference in the paychecks of tens of thousands of the state’s workers. That bill, LD 402, is modeled after an overtime protection policy that Heidi Shierholz, who was a former chief economist in Obama’s Department of…
A new bill introduced by House Assistant Majority Leader Jared Golden would crack down on wage theft by unethical employers in Maine. The bill is designed to address a widespread problem, especially for low-wage workers, and one that’s difficult to improve given the power imbalance stacked against the employees who are often targeted for wage…
For Heather McIntosh, a single mother working as a restaurant server in Portland, the most important aspect of Question 4 is the raise in the subminimum...
Claims that the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is obstructing the voting of citizens of that country abroad are completely untrue, said the head of Serbian diplomacy in the technical mandate,...