Women earn less than men, right? Not, it turns out, among a very specific set of women and men: "In 2008," reports Conor Dougherty of The Wall Street Journal, "single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities." Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm, crunched the numbers from the Census Bureau to arrive at this statistic.
Time Magazine reports that the much-ballyhooed “wage gap” — that’s the term used to describe the difference between men’s and women’s average earnings — has reversed in some metropolitan areas, so that women are now earning more than men.
As many states try to decipher between effective and ineffective methods of educating children, one education researcher suggests contrasting the approaches of California and Florida.
A New Year’s headache is projected that will include a rise in the top tax rate on wages of more than 13 percent, to 39.6 percent. The rates on all brackets will be increased. The lowest income-tax bracket, for example, goes up 50 percent, from 10 to 15 percent; the next level jumps from 25 percent to 28 percent, while the former 28 percent bracket will go to 31 percent. The middle-income family, with a median income of $63,366, would have its federal tax burden pushed up by $1,540 when the “Bush tax cuts” expire, according to a Tax Foundation analysis. Families would obviously differ according to income, marital status, children, and other variables.
Certainly, the Bush Administration did significantly grow the size of government (total federal spending was $1.8 trillion in 2000 and $3.0 trillion in 2008, in comparison, during that time federal receipts increased by $500 billion), but the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not primarily responsible for today’s monstrous deficit.
August 26 has been dubbed “Women’s Equality Day,” in celebration of the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Passage of that amendment was the culmination of years of hard work and dedication on the part of America’s noble suffragettes, and it is indeed amazing to think of all of the progress women have made in our society in the ninety years following that breakthrough.
An education reform expert is touting Florida's scholarship program for students in foster care as a cost-effective model for other states to improve overall academic achievement in public schools.
The most expensive public school in American history is set to open next month in Los Angeles, but some people believe the $578-million price tag for the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools is a tremendous waste of taxpayers' money.
The New York Times recently revisited the issue of why women-dominated jobs pay less than those of male-heavy sectors.
Breaking news out of Washington DC: there's a huge disconnect between those in charge and the people on the economy!
Given the recent sound and fury over amending the 14th amendment to remove the provision governing “birthright citizenship,” it might be instructive to review what actually goes into amending the Constitution.
Passage of cap and trade legislation, now stalled but not dead, would mean that many working Americans, now productively employed in the manufacturing sector, could find themselves learning to install solar panels—at taxpayer expense.
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it ended the third quarter of FY2010 with a net loss of $3.5 billion, a full $1.1 billion more than the same quarter last year (that’s approximately a 50% increase, for those of you keeping score at home.)
This is not an attack on teachers. There are excellent teachers throughout the nation. These teachers work hard every day of their professional lives to effectively educate millions of American children so that they too can realize the American dream. These teachers deserve merit pay for the hard work they do in educating our children. Also, they deserve to be free encumbrances like the teacher tenure programs promoted by various teachers unions that make it all but impossible to terminate the employment of ineffective and unmotivated teachers.
Those who prefer tax increases to spending cuts rely on the tried-and-true tactic of claiming that any spending reduction will take food from the needy and quality education away from children. That's the justification being used for Congress's latest effort to send the states a $26 billion bailout: Absent the federal money, proponents argue, states will have to fire teachers and other public workers, and children will suffer.
Successful entrepreneurs should think twice about what’s in the Christmas ham this December. Why? From the perspective of expectant heirs, 2010 is a great time to die. It's the first year since 1916 that there has not been a tax on inheritance, or what's known as a “death tax.” In 2001, legislators voted to phase out the steep tax on estates, but on January 1, 2011, that repeal will sunset, and the death tax will come back to haunt us.
A new wave of corruption scandals is building in Washington. Or, rather, we’re beginning to see the wave come ashore. This time, it’s Democrats washing up – Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters and a host of other representatives up on ethical and possible criminal charges. Of course, corruption among government officials is as old as government itself. As the clichéd fable goes, a scorpion will sting no matter what he promised the frog.
Feeding a child is one of the most basic parental responsibilities, yet first lady Michelle Obama wishes to liberate parents from this fundamental role by urging them to rely on the public schools to feed their children.
People complain about how early stores begin anticipating holidays. Christmas decorations creep onto the shelves before Thanksgiving and red Valentine's hearts appear soon after New Year's. So why would someone write about ringing in the new year in August?
Democrat strategists wondering why support for Congress and the president has plummeted need look no further than the financial regulation law. The beltway chattering class heralds it as another big legislative victory. Yet a small section of this latest two thousand-page law exemplifies the hubris of a political class that simply doesn’t share the same priorities as the American people.
DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has been an outspoken advocate for school reform - often angering teachers unions along the way. She's come under fire for firing underperforming teachers - a move likely to be repeated again soon according to the Washington Examiner - and her latest announcement is likely to antagonize entrenched interests even further.
Our unemployment is 9.5 percent, and has been teetering toward double digits for a year. Growth is sluggish, and too many fear that it will remain that way. Does this sound like a good time to increase taxes on work and investment?
Among adherents of the nanny state, it's no longer enough to require schools to provide healthy meals for kids. Now schools are making sure parents do too. Recent news articles out of Great Britain reveal that staff members in a Gloucestershire school district have become a food-police force. They were secretly opening children's lunchboxes and photographing the contents.
The Obama Administration's handling of Shirley Sherrod's comments on race reveal what has been blatantly obvious since then candidate Obama became a serious contender for the presidency of the United States --- our nation's politicians and media have no idea how to handle issues of race and are even more concerned with matters of race when the leader of the free world just happens to be black.
Last week, French lawmakers approved a ban on burqas that cover the face, asserting that they "don't square with the French ideal of women's equality or its secular tradition." Although not yet law (the proposal will be voted on in September in the French Senate), the overwhelming support for it in the National Assembly (335 yes votes, one no vote, and 221 abstentions) signals that the bill is likely to pass.
The era of Big Unit Government hasn't ended. But it is obsolete.
The Independent Women's Forum is pleased to announce the winners for our 2009-2010 college essay contest.
