Friday, February 27, 2015

Thursday / Friday 26 / 27 February

Students worked on the following:
Name ____________________________________Group______ Date _______________ Period _____

Supply & Demand & Cost (Wages and Income) in the Labor Market
This lesson is designed to help you consider how the supply of, demand for, and value of labor are interrelated. Supply, demand, and cost are sometimes thought of as levers: changing the relative position of one, will cause a change in the relative position of others (e.g. the “whack-a-mole” view of supply-demand-cost).

First consider the following:

There is a _________ supply of rocks; there is _________ demand for rocks; so rocks have ________ value. There is a _________ supply of palladium; there is a _________ demand for palladium; so palladium has a _________ value.  If someone figures out how to use rocks to make computer chips, the demand for rocks will go __________; so ceteris paribus the value of rocks will go ___________.

When unemployment is high (as it was during the _____________________________ and ____________________________) there is a _________ supply of labor; during ___________________ and _____________________ there was relatively _________ demand for labor (there were few job openings); so the value of labor (wages) were ___________. When the economy grew during WW II (and so there was a  _________ demand for labor), the value of labor (wages) went  _________.

Unions are groups of laborers who work together to improve working conditions and wages. Sometimes unions go on strike. The effect of a strike is to _________ the supply of labor, this would most likely cause wages to go _________. (Many unions consider working conditions (e.g. work load, seniority, health care, safety, etc. to be part of the value of their labor, and so strikes are not always about increasing the number of dollars given by an employer for each hour of work.)

You are being assigned one “story” according to your group letter. Your group needs to study the story, and create a short summary to share with others in the class. Consider: who, what, where, when, why, and how? Then for each of the following stories in our economic history consider the following for the implied economic equation:
What is the supply? What is the demand? What is the current cost / value? (These need only be determined in general terms). Then:
Will there be a greater or larger supply of something?
Will there be a greater or larger demand for something?
What will the effect on the value (cost/wage/income) be?

What predictions can you make based on your understanding of the interrelated aspects of supply, demand, and cost?

What other factors could affect the relationship among supply, demand, and cost in this story?

Then develop a clear way to explain the who, what, where, when, why, and how, and the supply-demand-cost considerations you discovered to the class.
A)Wisconsin Governor To Sign Right-To-Work Bill Amid Protests


Union leaders and workers returned to protest today at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Just a few years ago, Governor Scott Walker all but eliminated bargaining rights for public employee unions. This time, the issue is a bill that bans mandatory union dues in the private sector. Walker says he'll sign this one into law, too. Wisconsin Public Radio's Shawn Johnson reports.
SHAWN JOHNSON, BYLINE: These protests are a lot smaller than those four years ago when tens of thousands gathered daily at the Wisconsin Capitol, but they have their fiery moments.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PHILIP GRUBER: What's disgusting?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Union busting.
GRUBER: What's disgusting?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Union busting.
JOHNSON: Philip Gruber of the Machinists Union told the crowd of a couple thousand gathered on the steps of the capitol that the only way to stop the right-to-work bill was to stand still.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRUBER: That's right, I said stand still. I think it's about time that we stop the production in this country. Let's stand still.
JOHNSON: As Gruber spoke, a handful of people in the crowd chanted, strike, strike, strike. But for the most part, the atmosphere here is far more reserved in 2015 than in 2011. Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald matter-of-factly announced last Friday that he would introduce a right-to-work bill and he already had the votes to pass it. At a public hearing yesterday, Fitzgerald said it was time to modernize Wisconsin's labor laws.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCOTT FITZGERALD: The bottom line is that to move our state forward, Wisconsin needs a modern economy. The status quo has served us well in the past, but in order to see our economy continue to compete at a global level, we cannot remain mired in the antiquated system.
JOHNSON: Greg Mourad with the National Right to Work Committee says Wisconsin's current labor laws that let private sector unions collect dues from all workers are akin to being kidnapped in a taxicab.
GREG MOURAD: The other passengers don't let you out, they sit on either side and hold you there - the driver ignores your protests. After a lengthy drive, they pull over in Green Bay, the car stops, they untie you, and before they let you go, they demand $300 for your share of the cab fare.
JOHNSON: Unlike four years ago when he made going after public sector unions his signature achievement, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been mostly quiet on right-to-work. That's because he has said again and again that right-to-work would not happen on his watch. Here he is interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER: Private sector unions are my partner in economic development.
JOHNSON: But once a right-to-work bill surfaced, Walker wasted little time in announcing his support.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WALKER: I haven't changed my position on it, it just wasn't a priority for me. But should they pass it within the next two weeks, which is, I think, their target, I plan on signing it.
JOHNSON: While this right-to-work bill would keep collective bargaining intact for private sector unions, it could result in situations where union members who pay their dues are working side-by-side with workers who don't. Patrick Veeser is the union president at a Green Bay company that builds machines for the paper industry. He says his union has a great relationship with management, and he worries a Republican-led effort will hurt that.
PATRICK VEESER: They're reaching in and they're getting into private business. They always say less government. I'm seeing more government here. How can they rule on something they've never experienced?
JOHNSON: But as much as many union members dislike this bill, most don't think they can stop it. Steamfitter James Piper worries that it will starve his union to death.
JAMES PIPER: I'm here today as kind of like a funeral for a friend. I'm not the least bit positive or hopeful that this is going to have any impact on the decisions made inside the building.
JOHNSON: Piper says he's worked long enough to see the good that unions do for workers but he concedes that many younger workers don't want to join.
PIPER: Hell, we won't even be able to get a newsletter out to say let's all get together down at the state capitol and have a rally.
JOHNSON: When it passes, Wisconsin will become the 25th state with right-to-work law - laws that used to be more common in the South. But Republican governors in Michigan and Indiana recently signed right-to-work laws, and Wisconsin appears to be following the same pattern, albeit over the objections of unions that no longer carry much sway with their state governments. For NPR News, I'm Shawn Johnson in Madison.

(THE NEXT PAGE CONTAINS “COMMENTS”  POSTED ON THE NPR WEBSITE)



B) When reading and considering these comments remember that these are opinions, not journalistic presentation of facts. What is the point of view of each person? Do they share facts, facts and opinions, or just opinions?





Your story today did not explain why employees are required to pay a service fee or agency fee to the union in their workplace even if they do not want to join the union. But you did give ample space for the National Right to Work organization to claim that union fees are like a hijacking. Most Americans don't know why union fees are required: by law a union that is created by majority vote must bargain on behalf of all employees, members or not; the contract covers everyone. Collective bargaining for an employment contract is not free: someone has to pay for the service of contract negotiation and administration and even for the costs of a strike if it comes to that. So, because all workers at the job benefit from the contract, they are required to pay a service fee if they do not want to join and pay dues. Right-to-work laws are pro-free rider laws: you can get the benefit of the union without paying for it. But if some employees can get a pay increase because of the union contract for free, why should anyone pay? And if no one pays, then the union collapses. The real goal of such laws is to get rid of the union.
           
            Bob Potter Stephen Amberg 12 hours ago You benefit from the union, you pay for its costs.

           
           
            Greg H Stephen Amberg 12 hours ago Each individual should get paid their market value, without unions, the best will get paid more than they are currently, and the worst will get less or get fired.

           
                       
                        Leig Greg H 12 hours ago Well, that's not how it's worked out in the Southern states in which I've lived all my life. Rather, the wages and benefits are pressured to the lowest possible levels. One particular problem is that it eliminates a career ladder, so to speak. Once you are in striking distance of a salary level which just might keep you from constantly worrying about getting by, you are "let go" (No recourse, unless Human Resources is really stupid and says something like "get your black/Asian/etc" self out of here. Right to work means also means right to fire for almost any reason). Everybody behind you takes one step forward, a new person is hired to bring up the rear, and the process continues. It's sort of like walking the plank, but instead of advancing in your career, you jump into the unemployment pool and have to start at the bottom again.

                       
                        


                                   
                                    Greg H Leig 10 hours ago You do realize that 90% of workers are already non-union and it works just fine in most of the country. The reason union participation is higher in blue collar sections of the economy (South & Midwest) is because they have less value in a knowledge-based economy, so obviously their wages would plummet unless artificially propped up by unions.

                                   
                                               
                        AKLady Greg H 9 hours ago Unions also support equal pay for women. Apparently, regardless of education, training and experience, women "have less value" in a knowledge-based economy?
Women have less value in America. Equal pay is the law in Canada.


C) Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal
The New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term (1933–37) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.[1]
The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, the white South, traditional Democrats, big city machines, and the newly empowered labor unions and ethnic minorities. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, and liberals accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal Coalition that dominated most presidential elections into the 1960s, while the opposition Conservative Coalition largely controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963. By 1936 the term "liberal" typically was used for supporters of the New Deal, and "conservative" for its opponents.[2]
Many historians distinguish between a "First New Deal" (1933–34) and a "Second New Deal" (1935–38), with the second one more liberal and more controversial. The "First New Deal" (1933–34) dealt with diverse groups, from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic survival. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for instance, provided $500 million for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived CWA (Civil Works Administration) gave localities money to operate make-work projects in 1933–34.[3]
The "Second New Deal" in 1935–38 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program (which made the federal government by far the largest single employer in the nation),[4] the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers.[5]
The economic downturn of 1937–38, and the bitter split between the AFL and CIO labor unions led to major Republican gains in Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined in the informal Conservative Coalition. By 1942–43 they shut down relief programs such as the WPA and CCC and blocked major liberal proposals. Roosevelt himself turned his attention to the war effort, and won reelection in 1940 and 1944. The Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the first version of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) unconstitutional, however the AAA was rewritten and then upheld. As the first Republican president elected after FDR, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–61) left the New Deal largely intact, even expanding it in some areas.[6] In the 1960s, Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society used the New Deal as inspiration for a dramatic expansion of liberal programs, which Republican Richard M. Nixon generally retained. After 1974, however, the call for deregulation of the economy gained bipartisan support.[7] The New Deal regulation of banking (Glass–Steagall Act) was suspended in the 1990s. Many New Deal programs remain active, with some still operating under the original names, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The largest programs still in existence today are the Social Security System and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
D) Fastest Growing Occupations
Description: Macintosh HD:Users:Jamie:Desktop:Fastest Growing Occupations 2014.pdf



Description: Macintosh HD:Users:Jamie:Desktop:fastest wage growth.pdf

U.S. Department of Labor
Wage and Hour Division   http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0931299.html
FACT SHEET: PROPOSED RULEMAKING TO IMPLEMENT EXECUTIVE ORDER 13658,
ESTABLISHING A MINIMUM WAGE FOR CONTRACTORS
(June 2014)

On February 12, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13658, “Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors,” to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for all workers on Federal construction and service contracts. The President took this executive action because raising wages will improve the quality and efficiency of services provided to the government. Boosting wages lowers turnover, increases morale, and will lead to higher productivity overall on Federal contracts. The Executive Order directed the Department of Labor to issue regulations to implement the new Federal contractor minimum wage. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by Secretary of Labor Tom Perez is an important milestone in raising the minimum wage for workers on Federal contracts.

v Key Provisions of the NPRM v

The NPRM defines key terms used in the Executive Order, including contracts, contract- like instruments, and concessions contracts. The NPRM makes clear that the Executive Order minimum wage requirement applies to all contracts for construction covered by the Davis-Bacon Act; contracts for services covered by the Service Contract Act; concessions contracts, such as contracts to furnish food, lodging, automobile fuel, souvenirs, newspaper stands, and/or recreational equipment on Federal property; and contracts to provide services, such as child care or dry cleaning, in Federal buildings for Federal employees or the general public.

The NPRM provides guidance for contractors on their obligations under the Executive Order. The NPRM sets forth the standards that contractors should apply to determine whether their employees are covered by the Executive Order, recordkeeping requirements, and where to find the required rate of pay for all workers, including tipped workers and workers with disabilities.

The NPRM establishes an enforcement process that should be familiar to most government contractors and will protect the right of workers to receive the new $10.10 minimum wage. The Department of Labor generally proposes to adopt existing mechanisms for enforcing long-established prevailing wage laws to enforce the provisions of the Executive Order.
The NPRM estimates that hundreds of thousands of workers will benefit from the Executive Order.
The Department encourages interested parties to submit comments on the NPRM. The full text of the NPRM, as well as information on the deadline for submitting comments and the procedures for submitting comments, can be found at www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/nprm-eo13658







President Obama signs minimum wage executive order
By REID J. EPSTEIN | 2/12/14
President Barack Obama on Wednesday formally signed an executive order raising the pay for employees of federal contract workers, but his attention was on a push for Congress to do the same for all Americans.
Obama came armed with an array of statistics and figures showing how he believes raising the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 would boost the economy, but with few details about the executive order he signed during the East Room ceremony.
A minimum wage hike would help millions of people, be good for the economy and has the broad backing from Americans, Obama said. But what it does not have at the moment is enough support from Republicans in Congress.
“A majority of Americans – not just Democrats, not just independents, but Republicans too – support raising the minimum wage,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do. So that’s something Congress should keep in mind this year.”
So Obama encouraged his supporters to press Congress.
“Every American deserves to know where your elected representative stands on this issue,” he said. “So ask your senator, ask your representative in the House, do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. If they say yes, tell em good job. … If they say no, be polite, don’t just yell at them but say, ‘Why not?’ Ask them to reconsider siding with an overwhelming majority of Americans. Encourage them to say yes, give America a raise.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he doubts a minimum wage hike will provide an economic boost.
To prove the benefits of a minimum wage hike, Obama offered examples of three federal employees: a dishwasher, a fast-food employee and a laundry worker at federal facilities who will see their hourly pay increased whenever their employer’s contracts are renewed.
But the White House has been vague about the details of how many people will be impacted by Obama’s executive action.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told reporters at the White House that Obama’s executive order will boost the pay of “hundreds of thousands of people directly,” and would also benefit other Americans who would see a higher level of service.
Perez said the administration does not have exact figure for the percentage of federal employees who are now paid less than $10.10 per hour.
Obama’s executive order, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015, will not cost the federal government money because its contractors will become have more efficient employees if they are paid more, Perez said. Government agencies will not increase funds allocated to contracts to absorb higher wages, he said, because the contractors will see better productivity from their workers to cover the costs.
“All of this will be implemented within existing budget of the agencies,” Perez said. “The efficiencies of paying a fair wage is what we will gain.”
The higher minimum wage for federal contractor employees will go into effect as new federal contracts are agree to, Perez said, taking “three to five years” for all federal contracts to be renewed.
The executive order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors’ employees served as free advertising for Democrats’ 2014 campaign call to raise the overall federal minimum wage. The White House on Wednesday launched websites advertising 2014 as a “Year of Action” and calling for Congress to hike the minimum wage.
The minimum wage website features precise data on how many people in specific demographics would be impacted by an across-the-board minimum wage hike: 4.6 million married people with children, 12.4 childless single people and 2.8 million single parents.


http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/miniumum-wage-executive-order-barack-obama-103450.html

Tuesday and Wednesday, 24 and 25 February

In order to more fully understand the issues in the story The Birth of the Minimum Wage

Mr. Zartler lectured on the following graphs and ideas:



Monday, 23 February

Students took a vocabulary test and began listening to the following news story

The Birth of the Minimum Wage.


Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday / Friday 19 / 20 February

Future (Financial) History Drafts are Due!

Monday is a test on vocabulary!

Students were asked to complete the following refelection on their story.

1) Circle each vocabulary word whereever it appears in your story: wants; needs; income; investment; credit; interest, debt.

2) In the margin next to each inclusion of a decision with an "opportunity cost" explain what the cost was and what was gained.

On the back:
3) What parts of the economics of this assignmeent do you need to understand more about? What specific question(s) on the topic do you have?

4) Did you meet all the criteria:
Introduction: Explains who you are; where you are from; goals; dreams.
Story is Organized either
Subject by Subject: accommodations; earnings; leisure; relationships; opportunity costs; other
Date by Date: 2, 5, 10,  30, 50
Vocabulary six words used in a way that shows knowledge of their economics definitions (wants; income; investment; credit; interest debt)
Conclusion  What part(s) of living this story might be most difficult for you, and why? What might you do in order to make your plans more likely?
for the assignment?

5) How well is your story written? Give examples.

6) What grade would you assign and why?

Periods that had not yet done so watched this lesson on Economic Growth Through Investment.

The class then started a section of notes called: Curves: Supply; Demand; Cost; (Production)

and took notes similar to these:

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