Maintaining and Improving Social Security for Direct Care Workers

America's more than three million direct care workers (DCWs) -- a category that includes nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal and home care aides -- play a crucial role in maintaining the health and economic security of elderly retirees and people with disabilities. Yet, they are among the most poorly compensated and economically insecure workers in the United States.Only about one in every four direct care workers have employer-provided retirement benefits. When these workers themselves retire or become disabled, many of them will rely almost exclusively on modest Social Security benefits to keep a roof over their heads and meet other basic living expenses.Some recent proposals to cut Social Security would put the retirement security of direct care workers -- and millions of other workers in poorly compensated jobs -- at risk. Instead of cutting Social Security benefits, the federal government should strengthen Social Security in ways that increase retirement security, particularly for retirees who have worked in poorly compensated jobs and typically have little or no retirement savings outside of Social Security.This brief provides direct care workers and their allies with information they can use to become engaged in efforts to maintain and strengthen Social Security. After providing background on how Social Security works and why today's direct care workers can count on it being there for them when they retire, it details some troubling recent proposals that would cut Social Security benefits. The final section way to improve Social Security and increase the retirement security of direct care workers

Fisher & Beyond

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. I began my journey at St. John Fisher College in the fall of 2003; the education I received from Fisher was invaluable. I majored in Communications/ Journalism, which allowed me to meet many amazing professors, all of which have helped to shape my life into what it is today. The multiple classes I took with Jack Rosenberry, and former professors, Jim Seward and Tom Proietti made a lasting impression with me. The numerous stories they shared throughout class have stayed with me since I graduated and I have even thought of them throughout my professional career. It was actually through professor Proietti that I was able to obtain an internship in the sports department for Channel 13 news my junior year; just another great fisher experience that I will never forget

October 2007, Volume 2, Issue 2

A RWU newsletter designed to keep the faculty informed of the academic technology resources that are available to them on campus

Encouraging sustainable development in a coastal community: New Hanover County, North Carolina's exceptional design zoning district

While New Hanover County is the second smallest county in North Carolina, it is also the second most densely populated with approximately 850 people per square mile. Nestled between the Cape Fear River and Atlantic Ocean with surrounding barrier island beach communities, the County’s geographic location provides a prime vacation destination, as well as an ideal location for residents who wish to live at the water’s edge. Wilmington is the largest city in the County with a population just under 200,000. Most of the Wilmington metropolitan area is developed, creating intense development pressures for the remaining undeveloped land in the unincorporated County. In order to provide development opportunities for mixed use or high density projects within unincorporated New Hanover County where appropriate urban features are in place to support such projects without the negative effects of urban sprawl, County Planning Staff recently developed an Exceptional Design Zoning District (EDZD). Largely based on the LEED for Neighborhood Development program, the EDZD standards were scaled to fit the unique conditions of the County with the goal of encouraging sustainable development while providing density incentives to entice the use of the voluntary district. The incentive for the voluntary zoning district is increased density in areas where the density may not be allowed under normal circumstances. The rationale behind allowing for higher density projects is that development can be concentrated in areas where appropriate urban features are in place to support such projects, and the tendency toward urban sprawl can be minimized. With water quality being of high importance, it is perceived that higher density development will better protect water quality then lower density projects. (PDF contains 4 pages

Reimbursement Roulette: The Baucus Bill's Too Playful Approach to "Play-or-Pay" in Health Care Reform

Two of the three leading health care reform proposals being considered by Congress -- the House "Tri-Committee" health care reform legislation and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee's reform legislation -- include sensibly designed "play-or-pay" provisions that require employers to pay an assessment if they do not offer insurance to some or all of their employees. The third leading health care reform proposal -- the bill proposed by Sen. Max Baucus and currently under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee -- also includes a play-or-pay requirement, but it is poorly designed and would be unfair to employers, harmful to employees, and impose wasteful expenses on taxpayers

Talking About Poverty in a Jobs and Economy Framework

Reducing poverty substantially is not a small project. Unfortunately, only 1 percent of Americans point to "poverty" when asked about the most important problems facing the nation. This presents anti-poverty activists with a strategic problem: we need major policy reforms to substantially reduce poverty, but hardly any Americans -- including, it must be said, those officially categorized as poor -- view "poverty" as a major issue.The good news is that most Americans currently point to "jobs" or the "economy" when asked to identify the most important problem. The poverty rate is largely determined by job availability and job quality -- specifically unemployment, median earnings, and wage inequality, which explain most of the trend in poverty over the last several decades -- so poverty is actually best understood within a jobs and economy framework.This paper looks at two general recommendations for doing this

Income, Inequality, and Food Prices: A Critique of Broda, Leibtag, and Weinstein's "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards"

In "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Christian Broda, Ephriam Leibtag, and David E. Weinstein (2009) use proprietary data -- the 2005 Nielsen Homescan dataset -- to analyze differences by income level in the prices paid for food. They find that Nielsen households with incomes above $60,000 pay somewhat more for the same food items than most households with lower incomes, with Nielsen households with incomes above$100,000 paying the most. Based on this finding and additional regression analyses, they conclude broadly that the "poor pay less -- not more -- for the goods they purchase" and that not accounting for this suggests that income inequality may be between 2.5 to 5 percent less than shown by national statistics

The Tax Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This report provides a detailed look at the tax provisions in the ARRA, noting which current laws are affected and the costs of each