We hope you had a great Labor Day! ✊ To our union partners and every worker who keeps this country running: this movement exists to have your back — for a living wage, paid leave, safe workplaces, and a tax code where the corporations you make profitable finally pay their share. #HappyLaborDay

A Labor Day Fact: The federal minimum wage hasn't budged since 2009, while billionaire wealth soared past $9 trillion. Raising it isn't radical. It's overdue respect for the people who do the actual work.

Setting high standards for a federal minimum wage: Raising the wage to two-thirds of the national median wage would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers

Key takeaways: The federal minimum wage is at its lowest real value in 77 years. Frozen at $7.25 since 2009, the federal minimum wage has lost 30% of its purchasing power during this 17-year freeze. S...

epi.org

We are proud to fight alongside labor, today and every day. Happy Labor Day to the workers and unions who keep Minnesota running! #HappyLaborDay

1/ "We need more than lip service; we expect action." At our town hall in Duluth this week, we heard from public workers across northern Minnesota about the needs in their communities. Watch the TV coverage here: bit.ly/4gXBbBw

Households in the reddest fifth of the country spend about 30% MORE on gasoline each year than those in the bluest. Translation: Trump's war is taxing his own voters hardest. A government run for billionaires doesn't spare anyone's paycheck.

Gas Prices Are High. Trump’s Supporters Are Feeling The Most Pain.

We crunched the numbers: Pain at the pump is sharper on one side of the political spectrum.

notus.org

While Ron DeSantis keeps waging his war on democracy, the Southern Poverty Law Center is once again stepping in to defend Floridians' fundamental right to vote. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4qRlS1w #ProtectTheVote

LISTEN: Kristen Crowell was on Chew's Views to discuss the Families Over Billionaires bus tour, which aimed to assess the devastating impact one year later of the Republican's disastrous One Big Beautiful Bill Act 👇 Listen here: bit.ly/465npYl #TaxJustice

“Fully funding education? It’d be amazing!” Meet Sarah Bosch, a science teacher in Saint Paul Public Schools.

Notebooks, lunch boxes & tissues: up 20%+. Headphones: up 6.6%. Newell Brands alone passed $170 MILLION in tariff costs to shoppers. Teachers are relying on donations to stock classrooms. Trump's tariffs are a back-to-school tax on every family in America.

As Students Head Back to School, Families Face 11% Price Hikes - Groundwork Collaborative

groundworkcollaborative.org

In Washington, D.C., 63 years after Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, thousands assembled on Friday to warn against the attacks on voting rights. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4603ZnL #ProtectTheVote

Today we released a new report documenting what we heard on our summer bus tour across the country that started in Portland, Maine, and ended in Tucson, Arizona. Read the report's key findings here:

New Report: One Year In, Communities Say the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Pushed Costs onto Hospitals and Families

Families Over Billionaires’ “Who Pays?” report follows testimony from a national bus tour in 18 communities across 13 states

fobaction.substack.com

While parents take on debt for school supplies and seniors stretch their prescriptions, the President is most excited about...his new helipad? Working families need relief. He's giving them vanity projects.

Trump shows off his new helipad, brags about construction projects

For a brief period Wednesday, the president set aside more troubling issues to revel in his role as White House redeveloper.

washingtonpost.com

The clownishly corrupt high court’s shadow-docket decision isn’t the final word on mail-in ballots, but it reveals the conservative bloc’s comfort with the Trump regime’s voter suppression schemes. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4wXe1kD #ProtectTheVote

Congratulations to AFL-CIO President @lizshuler.bsky.social on being included on @time.com's list of the TIME100 AI of 2026! Labor has been here for every transformation of our economy, and we’ll be here to make sure this economy works for all of us, not just big tech. #TIME100AI http://ti.me/100ai

Gasoline has NEVER been this expensive this late in the year. National average: $4.10. Extra household spending in six months: $56.4 billion — roughly $477 per home. Big Oil's profits last quarter: $90 billion. Trump's war. Your bill. Their windfall.

Americans Have Never Paid This Much for Fuel So Late in The Year

It’s peak driving season in the US, and gasoline and diesel prices have never been this expensive this late in the year.

bloomberg.com

Organized labor is celebrating the life and legacy of Dolly Parton, who championed working women and carried a union card for almost 60 years. https://bit.ly/4xiy91p

Dolly Parton Was a Proud Union Sister

Organized labor is celebrating the life and legacy of an artist who championed working women and carried a union card for almost 60 years.

bit.ly

59% of Americans — including nearly half of Republicans — disapprove of how Trump handles corruption. One voter said it best: "he is now a member of the swamp." People see it. And they know who's paying for it: them.

Trump’s record disapproval, bipartisan bitterness & more | Enten roundup | CNN Politics

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten runs the numbers of the week, from Trump’s new record low approval rating to democratic socialism’s eruption.

cnn.com

“I’m very worried about the future of Higher Ed in Minnesota. We have a mission to train our job force for our state, and if we don’t have the funds to teach people where they’re at, then we can’t do that mission.”

BUSTED: Over a dozen U.S. companies that signed a 2021 letter urging Congress to strengthen the Voting Rights Act continue to contribute to state political groups that are actively working to undermine the legislation, according to a campaign finance watchdog. Read more: https://bit.ly/46lStTG

The latest tale of two economies: Pay-later loans are now "working capital for the modern middle class" as Americans have to finance groceries. Meanwhile billionaires borrow against their stock tax-free at rates you'll never be offered.

Consumers Lean on a ‘Hamster Wheel’ of Credit to Manage Rising Costs

As prices increase for gas, groceries and other staples, more and more households are borrowing to get by.

nytimes.com

Rising prices are literally rewiring how Americans shop: smaller carts, skipped staples, store brands, food put back at the register. The steepest grocery price surge in 50 years — made worse by Trump & Republicans in Congress that CUT food assistance.

Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years

Living through the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century has many Americans changing their eating and food shopping habits.

apnews.com

"Three anniversaries, one question: Why, in 2026, are we still fighting for rights already won -- the right to vote, equal pay, the Equal Rights Amendment Congress refuses to recognize as ratified?" Read more here: https://bit.ly/3SMKOe1 #ProtectTheVote

Arizona's SNAP enrollment dropped 53% between June 2025 and March 2026 — over 469,000 people lost food assistance because of the GOP's cuts. Hunger didn't fall. Help was taken away. Remember exactly who did this.

Millions lose food stamps under Trump cuts. Arizona is hardest hit

Half of Arizona's SNAP participants have lost their benefits.

reuters.com

“I’m making sure somebody has food to eat. I’m making sure somebody has healthcare so they can get cancer treatment. I’m making sure somebody has a home to call their own. And that’s what keeps me going every day.” Meet Benjamin Henry, President of AFSCME Local 517 in Washington County.

We hear a lot about top 1% & top 0.1% but how rich is that really? Turns out defining extreme wealth is more complicated than it looks 🧵 A new video on @equitablegrowth.bsky.social & the Extreme Wealth Center's report from @austinclemens2.bsky.social helps explain: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXdP...

Defining extreme wealth is more complicated than it looks

YouTube video by Washington Center for Equitable Growth

youtube.com

The Trump-GOP health care cuts, one year in: ✅ 8 million Americans lost coverage. ✅ Premiums up 25% across the board — doubled or tripled for 22 million people on the ACA. ✅ Rural hospitals shuttering. ✅ All to help cover a $1.7 trillion tax break for billionaires. Read more here:

On the First Anniversary of the OBBBA, Millions of Americans Have Been Left Behind

One year after the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, millions of Americans are losing health care coverage and food assistance while the wealthiest households benefit from tax breaks.

americanprogress.org

If Democrats take back control of Congress and the White House, undoing the damage the Supreme Court has done to voting rights — and preventing them from doing it again — will be a top priority, Hakeem Jeffries said. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4wuEFRm #ProtectTheVote

ICYMI – debt-to-GDP has passed 100% and reached WW2 levels, but debt-to-wealth in the US is 20% and ~half WW2 levels. @dsmitch28.bsky.social and I argue the most cited debt statistic doesn't account for all our resources.

Democrats should use Congress’ August recess to lean into economic populism and take on corporate interests — not just “simply oppose Trump and his billionaire friends,” according to a memo by a quartet of progressives.

Exclusive: Senate Democrats advise party to break out economic populism

Democrats should use Congress’ August recess to take on corporate interests, the four senators wrote.

semafor.com

"While the potential economic upsides of AI are immense, so are the potential economic downsides. Tax policy needs to help us prepare for those risks."

Raise the Corporate Tax Rate to Stem AI-Related Economic Inequity

Opinion: AI’s economic impacts may include more inequity and job dislocations and losses. A higher corporate rate would raise substantial revenue from the wealthy without stifling innovation or growth...

news.bloombergtax.com