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What I've Been Reading This Week


What I thought was going to be a full week on the road ended up only being a handful of days out of the office instead.  However, being a bit under the weather left me trying to catch up on my sleep when I was not in Court or traveling for a hearing.  As a result, I tried to narrow things down and pick out the most relevant topics/articles I came across this week.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


New EEOC Nominees Announced

On July 3rd, the White House announced the two nominees for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC").  The two nominees put forth for confirmation by the Senate are Wage and Hour Division official Keith Sonderling and current EEOC Member Charlotte Burrows.  Of note, Sonderling is the Republican nominee and Burrows is the Democratic nominee.  I would expect both nominations to proceed in unison with both Sonderling and Burrows confirmed to the EEOC.  Should that happen, the EEOC would have a 3 to 1 Republican majority (with one vacant seat remaining open.)


Ahead of Amazon Prime Day, Minnesota Amazon Warehouse Workers Plan Strike

Some readers might have heard that next week is Amazon Prime Day, when many items are on sale or steeply discounted for a few hours.  Needless to say, this annual event often brings a lot of attention and money to the company (which in turn requires a lot of man power to process orders as they come in.)  Ahead of the July 15th prime day, warehouse workers at one of Amazon's plants in Minnesota announced they will stage a six hour work stoppage to bring attention to their labor issues with the company.  As the article from Bloomberg points out, Amazon's US workers have not walked off the job during big sales days (like Prime Day or Black Friday.)  Whether this planned strike will result in any tangible change remains to be seen...but it should certainly draw eyes to the issues raised by these workers.


Equal Pay Takes Center Stage as US Women's National Team Celebrates in NYC

Sally Goldenberg wrote an article on Wednesday that made note of the prevailing theme at the US Women's National Team's celebration in NYC after winning the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.  As Goldenberg writes, City Council Member Helen Rosenthal repeatedly shouted "Pay them!" at the celebration, again bringing attention to the ongoing equal pay fight by these players.  Notably, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio (who is running for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination), has indicated that if elected, he would "insist" that Congress amend the 1978 Amateur Sports Act and require pay equity between men and women in all professional sports.  Going one step further, Mayor DeBlasio has expressed his desire to order the US Treasury Department to revoke the tax exempt status of the US Soccer Federation, if the amendment to the 1978 Amateur Sports Act bogged down in Congress.  As I pointed out yesterday, I do not think this equal pay matter will be dissipating anytime soon.


Raising the Federal Minimum Wage Rate to $15/Hour Predicted to Eliminate 1.3 Million Jobs

The Congressional Budget Office ("CBO") released a report at the start of the week in which it was predicted that if Congress passed a bill raising the federal minimum wage rate to $15/hour (as many Democrats in Congress are pushing to do), that would result in the loss of 1.3 million jobs.  While the CBO study is not a definitive report on the matter, it should serve as additional evidence for those opposing such a drastic raise the federal minimum wage rate.  (For those wondering, the current federal minimum wage rate is $7.25/hour.)

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