Truthout
Economy & Labor
![Fast food workers protest at the closed Popeyes Louisiana Chicken on International Boulevard in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-1491552572-400x300.jpg)
Child Labor Could Solve Alabama’s “Labor Shortage,” Says GOP Group
The Alabama Policy Institute wants to loosen child labor laws to address a labor shortage caused by too-low pay.
![New York City Mayor Eric Adams, flanked by Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan (L), Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom (R), and HTC union members announces a medical debt relief program that will invest $18 million over three years to relieve over $2 billion in medical debt for hundreds of thousands of working-class New Yorkers during a press conference on January 22, 2024, in New York City.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-1948085927-400x300.jpg)
Local Governments Are Pledging to Cancel Medical Debt for Residents
New York City is the latest to join the growing initiative, pledging to pay down $2 billion in debt.
![A sign reading 'For Rent / Two Bedroom" is seen in bushes in front of an apartment building, low angle.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0125-for-rent-400x300.jpg)
Study: Half of Renters Paid Unaffordable Rates in 2022, a Record High
Since 2001, median rents have risen by 21 percent — while renters’ incomes have only increased by 2 percent.
![ATM pictured at night](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0125-atm-400x300.jpg)
More Than Half of Americans Don’t Have Enough Savings to Cover $1,000 Expense
More than one in five Americans have no emergency savings fund set up at all.
![A customer visits a supermarket in San Mateo, California, on December 12, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0119_groceries-400x300.jpg)
Greedflation Accounts for 53 Cents of Every Dollar of Inflation in Past 6 Months
With the 2024 presidential election looming, 96 percent of Americans say inflation is an important issue to them.
![Chinese New Year Parade](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-540824661-400x300.jpg)
Inside the Movement to Save Philly’s Chinatown From a New NBA Arena
Organizers in Philadelphia's Chinatown are drawing from generations of resistance to face an “existential threat.”
![A digital illustration of hands grating a house with people still in it into money, over a plate already overflowing with money.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0120-wealth-extraction2-1-400x300.jpg)
The Only Solution to “Wealth Supremacy” Is a Democratic Economy
Our economy must center human outcomes rather than rising share prices, says social theorist and author Marjorie Kelly.
![Young woman calculating financial bills at home](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-1479184757.jpg)
Bipartisan Tax Bill Offers Generous Corporate Tax Relief, Inadequate Poverty Aid
A proposed bill increases the child tax credit, but fails the poorest families. Yet corporations would see a windfall.
![An outreach worker delivers supplies to people living in a homeless camp on December 23, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0117-kentucky-400x300.jpg)
Kentucky GOP’s New Bill Decriminalizes Use of Deadly Force Against the Unhoused
"I'm just ashamed that this bill even came into fruition,” a Lexington council member said.
![BNSF heiress Marlene Engelhorn holds a sign reading "TAX THE RICH" during an outdoor demonstration](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/01/2024_0117-tax-rich-400x300.jpg)
Poll: 74 Percent of Millionaires in G20 Countries Support Higher Taxes on Wealth
Meanwhile, 260 millionaires and billionaires signed a letter imploring leaders to raise taxes on rich people like them.