Extend UI and guarantee fair wages. View this in your browser and share with your friends. <[link removed]>



<[link removed]>







We Need a Fair Wage Guarantee



For the one in five American workers currently drawing unemployment benefits <[link removed]>, the end of this month brings a grim reality: the expiration <[link removed]> of Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which has added $600 a week in benefits and forestalled evictions, bankruptcies, and food insecurity for millions. In a new issue brief, Roosevelt Fellow Bharat Ramamurti and Great Democracy Initiative Fellow Lindsay Owens explain why an extension of this supplement is necessary but insufficient for insulating Americans from steep income drops. The solution, they argue, is a fair wage guarantee. Four benefits: It raises wages for millions, provides a powerful economic stimulus, promotes the hiring of unemployed workers, and addresses racial inequities in the labor market. Learn more in “The Fair Wage Guarantee: A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Raise Wages and Accelerate Our Economic Recovery,” <[link removed]>and read more from Ramamurti and Roosevelt Fellow Naomi Zewde in Vox’s “The End of the American Dream.” <[link removed]>

- The costs of the cliff: In a letter sent on Wednesday, leading progressive organizations—including the Roosevelt Institute, the Center for American Progress, MoveOn, and the Economic Policy Institute—urged Congress <[link removed]>to extend the unemployment supplement: “This $600 boost to unemployment benefits has helped millions pay rent, buy groceries, and keep the lights on. Slashing workers’ incomes now, by any amount, before it is safe to go back to work—and while there are still more than 3 times as many unemployed workers as job openings—will further hurt demand.”













Bolstering State Economies by Raising Progressive Taxes



With state and local governments facing unprecedented revenue shortfalls, many are proposing deep cuts to public services and employment even as COVID-19 reaches new peaks. As Kitty Richards (strategic advisor to the Groundwork Collaborative) explains in a new issue brief, there’s a better way: “Tax increases, especially those that fall on the rich, are far less damaging than spending cuts. In fact, not only should spending not be cut to avoid a tax increase, further increasing [state and local] taxes on the rich in order to increase spending would provide a large boost to the local economy.” Learn how. <[link removed]>

- The inequality of budget cuts: “Budget shortfalls will exacerbate gender and racial inequities already worsened by COVID and they will levy a heavy and long-lasting toll on women workers,” Roosevelt Director of Health Equity Andrea Flynn and Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality Co-Executive Director Indivar Dutta-Guptawrite for Ms. Magazine <[link removed]>. “Women and people of color, and particularly women of color, will be more likely to lose their jobs and the cuts to essential health, education, and other services will jeopardize their health and economic security in the short and long term . . . There is no getting around it: A gender-equitable recovery requires an infusion of funding from the federal government to the states.”







Rhiana Gunn-Wright, in Her Words



“In some ways, it’s easier to talk about climate change than when we first came out with the Green New Deal resolution. That’s because the connections between the pandemic and climate crisis are clear, starting with the fact that people of color—Black and Latino folks—are dying at far higher rates from COVID,” Roosevelt Director of Climate Policy Rhiana Gunn-Wright tells Emma Goldberg for the New York Times newsletter In Her Words <[link removed].>. This week, Gunn-Wright joined former Vice President Al Gore and others for Bloomberg Green’s virtual event, “The Time Is Now,” <[link removed]> and reiterated why climate action requires racial justice: “To move something with no support on one side, you need multiracial coalitions,” Gunn-Wright said. “And that is difficult to do unless you are speaking about climate in a way that creates a more just and equitable society.” Watch here. <[link removed]>

Rest in Power, John Lewis



Roosevelt mourns the passing of Rep. John Lewis—Conscience of the Congress and model of undaunted leadership. “While his words and his voice and his presence are a vivid memory, it is his example of humanity and leadership in our democracy that will be his legacy,” said <[link removed]> Roosevelt board chair Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who presented Rep. Lewis with a Four Freedoms Award <[link removed]> in 1999. “We are all committed to keeping that legacy alive.”







What We’re Reading

‘We’re Talking about More Than Half a Million People Missing from the US Population’ <[link removed]> - The Atlantic



The GOP Coalition Is Getting More Working-Class. Its Agenda Isn’t. [feat. Roosevelt’s Mike Konczal] <[link removed]> - New York Magazine



The Breathtaking Unconstitutionality of Trump’s New Census Policy <[link removed]> - Vox



Another Monument to White Supremacy That Should Come Down? The Electoral College <[link removed]> - Mother Jones



Black Regulators Rarely Appointed to Oversee Wall Street <[link removed]> - Wall Street Journal





You’re Only As Free as You Are Wealthy <[link removed]> - The Nation



3 Ways Postal Banking Could Help Save Our COVID-Ravaged Economy [feat. Roosevelt’s Mehrsa Baradaran] <[link removed]> - HuffPost



The ADA at 30: Beyond the Law’s Promise <[link removed]> - New York Times











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