Tag: Trump Labor Department

Trump called Epstein a ‘terrific guy’ who enjoyed ‘younger’ women before denying relationship with him

Washington Post logoBack in 2002, when Jeffrey Epstein was known only as a mysterious financial whiz with a private island and a roster of A-list friends, being friendly with him was something to boast about. And Donald Trump did.

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine that year for a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.” “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Now, Epstein is in jail, charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors who allege he abused dozens of female minors in New York and Palm Beach, Fla. He is no longer a friend anyone would want to claim.

View the complete July 8 article by David A. Fahrenthold, Beth Reinhard and Kimberly Kinda on The Washington Post website here.

Here’s why Trump’s Labor chief Alex Acosta won’t survive the Jeffrey Epstein scandal: CNN analyst

AlterNet logoOn Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed their indictment against multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of trafficking underage girls for sex.

Federal authorities say they seized nude photos of girls from his Manhattan townhouse, the New York Times reported.

Law enforcement found “hundreds perhaps thousands of sexually suggestive photographs of fully or partially nude females, safe containing compact disks with labels,” reported CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz.

View the complete July 8 article by Tana Geneva from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Labor Department scrubbed analysis that said its proposal would rob billions from workers

The following article by Casey Quinlan was posted on the ThinkProgress website February 1, 2018:

Trump’s administration “is giving a windfall to restaurant owners out of the pockets of tipped workers.”

A bartender mixes drinks for businessmen attending the Money Summit at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. The conference, hosted by Money, consists of 100 of Wall Street’s most influential leaders gathered to discuss agendas for America’s financial future. (Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Department of Labor decided to scrub an analysis from its proposal affecting tipped workers after it found workers would be robbed of billions of dollars,according to former and current department sources who spoke to Bloomberg Law.

In December, the Labor Department proposed a rule that rescinded portions of Obama-administration tip regulations and would allow employers who pay the minimum wage to take workers’ tips. The department said the proposed rule would allow “back of the house” workers, such as dishwashers and cooks, who don’t typically receive tips, to be part of a tip-sharing pool. But the rule also wouldn’t prevent employers from just keeping the tips and not redistributing them.

The department never offered any estimate to the public of the amount of tips that would be shifted from workers to employers. The work of analyzing costs and benefits to proposed rules is legally required for the rulemaking process, Economic Policy Institute noted. EPI did its own analysis and found that tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion a year in tips as a result of this rule. Women in tipped jobs would lose $4.6 billion annually. Continue reading “Labor Department scrubbed analysis that said its proposal would rob billions from workers”

The Trump administration just changed its overtime guidance — and business cheers

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website January 8, 2018:

em>Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta at the White House prior to President Trump’s remarks on tax reform on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

The Labor Department revived 17 opinion letters to employers issued during the final days of George W. Bush’s second term, a move that represents a shift in how the department will enforce compliance with overtime and other wage requirements.

The letters from the Wage and Hour Division, which were withdrawn once Barack Obama took office, provide interpretations of how the Fair Labor Standards Act applies in individual cases. The Obama administration stopped issuing these letters altogether, instead releasing broader “Administrator’s Interpretations” that laid out how the department viewed employers’ specific obligations under the law. Continue reading “The Trump administration just changed its overtime guidance — and business cheers”

2017 was a year of eroding workers’ rights

The following article by Casey Quinlan was posted on the ThinkProgress website December 22, 2017:

CREDIT: AP/THINKPROGRESS/DIANA OFOSU

Trump’s labor department has already started to erode progress on workers’ rights.

There have been a series of victories for labor rights in recent years. Graduate student workers at private colleges and universities now have the right to unionize. In New York, employers are no longer allowed to ask for an employee’s salary history — a question that often hurts women and people of color. And the Fight for 15 has scored wins in cities across the country.

But the Trump administration stands in the way of much of the progress labor activists are demanding. It may not be as noisy or ripe for attention-grabbing headlines as Betsy DeVos’ education department or Scott Pruitt’s Environmental Protection Agency, but Alexander Acosta’s labor department has rolled back a number of key Obama-era labor advances. Continue reading “2017 was a year of eroding workers’ rights”