Congressional Research Service Reports - 29 Matching Results
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- Jordan-U.S. Free Trade Agreement: Labor Issues
- No Description Available.
- NAFTA Labor Side Agreement: Lessons for the Workers Rights and Fast-Track Debate
- No Description Available.
- Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: The Cost-of-Living Adjustment in January 2002
- No Description Available.
- China: Labor Conditions and Unrest
- This report discusses the China's Labor condition and Chinese government attempt to implement laws and programs that protect labor rights and provide social welfare benefits while punishing labor rights activists and independent union organizer.
- Unemployment Related to Terrorist Attacks: Proposals to Assist Affected Workers in the Airlines and Related Industries
- This report discusses the proposal to assist affected workers in the airlines and related industries in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that shut down the nation’s air transport system temporarily.
- Federal Hiring Flexibilities for Emergency Situations: Fact Sheet
- n the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in a September 13, 2001 memorandum to executive branch agencies, identified various hiring flexibilities that can be used to meet staffing needs in emergency situations. This report provides information on each of the flexibilities.
- NAFTA Labor Side Agreement: Lessons for the Workers Rights and Fast-Track Debate
- No Description Available.
- Computer Services Personnel: Overtime Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
- The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), as amended, is the primary federal statute in the area of minimum wages and overtime pay. Through administrative rulemaking, the Secretary of Labor has established two tests through which to define eligibility under the Section 13(a)(1) exemption: a duties test and an earnings test. In the 106th Congress, legislation was introduced by Representatives Andrews and Lazio that would have increased the scope of the exemption: first, by expanding the range of exempt job titles, and then, through a relative reduction in the value of the earnings threshold or test. For example, were the minimum wage increased to $6.15 per hour, as pending proposals would do, the value of the computer services exemption threshold would be 4.5 times the federal minimum wage. Ultimately, neither bill was enacted, but the issue has re-emerged as H.R. 1545 (Andrews) and H.R. 546 (Quinn).
- Farm Labor Shortages and Immigration Policy
- This report first explains why the nexus between farm labor shortages and immigration policy has again arisen. It next examines the composition of the seasonal agricultural labor force and presents the arguments of grower and farmworker advocates concerning its adequacy relative to employer demand. The report closes with an analysis of the trends in (un)employment, time worked and wages of legal and illegal farmworkers to determine if they are consistent with the existence of a nationwide shortage of domestically available farmworkers.
- Immigration of Agricultural Guest Workers: Policy, Trends, and Legislative Issues
- This report discusses the revision of U.S. immigration policy on agricultural guest workers that are coming from various perspectives, and several major bills have already been introduced in the 107th Congress
- Employer Liability Provisions in Selected Patient Protection Bills
- In the various patient protection bills introduced in the 106th (H.R. 5628, S.Amdt. 3694, H.R. 2990) and to date in the 107th (H.R. 526, H.R. 2315, H.R. 2563, S. 889, S. 1052), Congress has attempted to address the issue of employer liability by limiting liability to certain persons or circumstances. This report provides an overview of the employer liability provisions of selected bills from the 106th and 107th Congress.
- Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response
- No Description Available.
- An Information Technology Labor Shortage? Legislation in the 106th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Immigration: Legislative Issues on Nonimmigrant Professional Specialty (H-1B) Workers
- No Description Available.
- Labor and Mandatory Arbitration Agreements: Background and Discussion
- This report discusses the Court's mandatory arbitration cases, as well as varying decisions of the U.S. circuit courts of appeals that have interpreted the Court's opinions. In addition, the report reviews legislative attempts to amend federal civil rights statutes to preclude compulsory arbitration agreements.
- Pay Equity Legislation in the 107th Congress
- This report discusses the gender wage gap and the historical presence of a gendered wage gap up until the time of the report's creation. It reports how the Federal government has fought the wage gap through acts like Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the current idea on how to correct and assist gender-based discrimination in the work force.
- A Shortage of Registered Nurses: Is It on the Horizon or Already Here?
- The largest, traditionally female-dominated health care occupation is registered nurses (RNs). It has been asserted that there are too few RNs available today to meet employers’ needs, that is, there is a shortage of nurses at the present time. It also has been estimated that there could well be a shortage of RNs in the not-too-distant future. This report will analyze the labor market conditions facing RNs and their employers.
- Pay Equity Legislation in the 107th Congress
- The term "pay equity" originates from the fact that women as a group are paid less than men. In 2000, for example, women with a strong commitment to the work force earned 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. As women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings have narrowed by just 12 percentage points over the past four decades (from about 60% in the 1960s and 1970s to more than 70% in the 1990s), some members of the public policy community have argued that current anti-discrimination laws should be strengthened and that additional measures should be enacted. Others, in contrast, believe that further government intervention is unnecessary because the gender wage gap will narrow on its own as women's labor market qualifications continue to more closely resemble those of men.
- Immigration of Agricultural Guest Workers: Policy, Trends, and Legislative Issues
- This report discusses the revision of U.S. immigration policy on agricultural guest workers that are coming from various perspectives, and several major bills have already been introduced in the 107th Congress
- Labor Standards and International Competition: Section 4(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act
- This report briefly sketches the origins of Section 4(e), examines its provisions, and the potential for its implementation.
- Minimum Wage and Related Issues Before the 106th Congress: A Status Report
- No Description Available.
- NAFTA Labor Side Agreement: Lessons for the Workers Rights and Fast-Track Debate
- The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), between the United States, Mexico, and Canada was the first trade agreement ever linked to worker rights provisions in a major way. Its companion "side agreement," the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC, which rhymes with "talc") went into effect with NAFTA on January 1, 1994. The NAALC agreement is "broad" in that NAFTA signatories agree to enforce their own labor laws and standards while promoting 11 worker rights principles over the long run. However, under NAALC, sanctions as an enforcement tool are applicable to only three of the 11 labor principles (pertaining to minimum wages, child labor, and occupational safety and health), and are not applicable to three basic rights: the right to organize, bargain collectively, and strike.
- Appropriations for FY2001: Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
- Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
- Salaries of Federal Officials: A Fact Sheet
- No Description Available.
- Enforceability of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements:
- In Wright v. Universal Maritime Service Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court found that a mandatory arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement was not enforceable because it failed to specify arbitration as the covered employees' sole method of obtaining relief for their statutory claims. Without such explicit language in the agreement, the union could not have made a "clear and unmistakable waiver" of the employees' rights to a judicial forum. Although the Court identified a "clear and unmistakable waiver" standard for determining whether a mandatory arbitration agreement could be enforced, it refrained from deciding whether a union could actually bargain for such a waiver
- Is Globalization the Force Behind Recent Poor U.S. Wage Performance?: An Analysis
- No Description Available.
- OSHA Reform: "Partnership" with Employers
- No Description Available.
- Immigration: Legislative Issues on Nonimmigrant Professional Specialty (H-1B) Workers
- No Description Available.