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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: MO Young Workers Face Paycheck Discrimination

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Friday, October 17, 2008   

St. Louis, MO – They're young and they're underpaid. A new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows that, after adjusting for inflation, Missouri employees in their twenties are making about ten percent less today than their counterparts did 30 years ago, even though their education levels are higher.

Report author, economist John Schmitt, says he found that generally, the only younger workers seeing better paychecks are those who belong to unions. Unionized Missouri employees in their twenties make about $1.75 more per hour than non-unionized workers. The challenge, he explains, is that most young employees don't have access to a union.

"By law, it's very difficult to organize a union. So, unless we get some changes to U.S. labor law, I think these trends are likely to continue."

Critics of labor unions believe they hurt businesses, and that lower pay may be justified for young workers who have less job experience. Schmitt doesn't agree - he says today's younger workers generally have more education than in past generations. He wonders why it's okay to pay young adults less in this country, when it's detrimental to the families they often help support.

"We're really talking about babies being born into the world to parents who are young. Those folks need economic resources, better wages, and health insurance. Given the time and financial investment that young people and their parents have made, it's particularly disheartening."

Schmitt's research found young workers are also about 30 percent more likely to have health insurance as union members than those who are not. The full report can be viewed online at www.cepr.net.




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