By Steve Smith
We’re not even 100 days in to the Trump Presidency, and already we’re seeing the effects of anti-worker policies pushed by the White House and GOP Congress. The result of these policies? According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), they’re undercutting wages and basic protections for working people on the job.
According to EPI, here are the top 10 actions the Administration has already taken that negatively impact workers.
- Protecting Wall Street profits that siphon billions of dollars from retirement savers.
- Letting employers hide fatal injuries that happen on their watch.
- Allowing potentially billions of taxpayer dollars to go to private contractors who violate health and safety protections or fail to pay workers.
- Undermining important regulations that protect workers and consumers.
- Allowing employers to penalize employees who don’t want to reveal their private medical information
- Gutting the strength of labor organizing by forcing unions to represent and protect non-dues-paying workers
- Cutting pay for construction workers on federally funded infrastructure projects.
- Putting the brakes on overtime pay for the middle class.
- Slashing the budget for the Department of Labor, hindering its ability to enforce wage theft and worker safety laws or provide job training programs.
- Declining to raise the minimum wage and lift pay for low-wage workers.
And this may just be the tip of the iceberg. As noted above, some bills directly targeting unions have already been introduced in Congress, including Rep. Steve King’s so-called “Right to Work” legislation that would severely undermine the ability of working people to stand together to negotiate fair wages and benefits with their bosses.
To read the full run down on the Trump/GOP Congress actions that harm working people, go to the EPI Working Economics Blog.