July 24 marked the 13th anniversary of the last federal minimum wage increase in the United States. In 2009, the minimum wage was raised from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour. In the near decade and a half that has followed, the wage has remained stagnant.
As pointed out in viral tweets on this year’s somber anniversary, it appears that several facets of society have not evolved since the Bush Jr. to Obama era. I was a new college graduate in 2007, the financial crisis was upon us and the 2008 crash loomed just around the corner.
At the time of my major declaration, well-meaning friends’ parents told me that environmental studies was not a real degree and would amount to a pile of pennies. Wouldn’t I rather study hard science and volunteer in my free time to fill my “do-gooder” void?
Professors responded to these challenges by arguing that a boom of sustainability jobs were about to take the nation by storm and that the green skills I was attaining would pay off and pay out. In hindsight, I would argue that both stances were inaccurate.
My degree anointing saddled a recession, and while there were ample jobs in environmental education, low pay nonprofit organizing positions, and a budding solar industry, longterm career opportunities were few and far between. In this divine year of 2022, full-time and fully-funded environmental positions are flooding job boards and my inbox, often generated by relatively newly minted sustainability offices in academia, government and...
CYBERJAYA, April 15 — The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is investigating an individual suspected of spreading false news that Malaysia supplied 329,000 barrels of diese...