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Mark Begich on Jobs

Democratic Jr Senator

 


Anchorage employment grew by 800 jobs since Jan. 2008

If you attended last week’s Anchorage Economic Development Corporation forecast lunch, you heard that Anchorage’s employment grew by more than 800 jobs in just the first five months of this year.
Source: 2008 State of the City Address , Jul 28, 2008

Form unions by card-check instead of secret ballot.

Begich signed H.R.1409&S.560

Amends the National Labor Relations Act to require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a bargaining representative without directing an election if a majority of the bargaining unit employees have authorized designation of the representative (card-check) and there is no other individual or labor organization currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit.

    Requires that priority be given to any charge that, while employees were seeking representation by a labor organization, an employer:
  1. discharged or otherwise discriminated against an employee to encourage or discourage membership in the labor organization;
  2. threatened to discharge or to otherwise discriminate against an employee in order to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of guaranteed self-organization or collective bardaining rights; or
  3. engaged in any unfair labor practice that significantly interferes with, restrains, or coerces employees in the exercise of such guaranteed rights.
    Source: Employee Free Choice Act 09-HR1409 on Mar 10, 2009

    Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016.

    Begich co-sponsored Minimum Wage Fairness Act

    Congressional summary: Increases the federal minimum wage for employees to:

    1. $8.20 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment
    2. $9.15 an hour beginning 1 year later,
    3. $10.10 an hour beginning 2 years later, and
    4. an amount determined by increases in the Consumer Price Index, beginning annually after 3 years.

    Proponent's argument in favor (RaiseTheMinimumWage.com): The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour remains decades out of date, and the federal minimum wage for tipped workers--$2.13 per hour--has not increased in over 20 years. The minimum wage of the past provided significantly more buying power than it does today. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.56 today when adjusted for inflation.

    Opponent's argument against: (Neil King in Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2014): The CBO concluded that a jump in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could eliminate 500,000 jobs. For Republicans, the report provided ammunition that a higher minimum wage would kill jobs. Democrats pointed to the CBO's findings that the higher wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. But both sides missed a key finding: That a smaller hike from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour would cause almost no pain, and still lift 300,000 people out of poverty while raising the incomes of 7.6 million people.Congressional Budget Office report:: Once fully implemented, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3%. Some people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings, due to the heightened demand for goods and services. The increased earnings for low-wage workers would total $31 billion. Accounting for all increases and decreases, overall real income would rise by $2 billion.

    Source: S.1737 & H.R.1010 14-S1737 on Nov 19, 2013

    Ban discriminatory compensation; allow 2 years to sue.

    Begich signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

      Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to declare that an unlawful employment practice occurs when:
    1. a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted;
    2. an individual becomes subject to the decision or practice; or
    3. an individual is affected by application of the decision or practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid.
    Allows an aggrieved person to obtain relief, including recovery of back pay, for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge, where the unlawful employment practices that have occurred during the charge filing period are similar or related to practices that occurred outside the time for filing a charge. Applies the preceding provisions to claims of compensation discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

    [Note: A woman named Lilly Ledbetter filed a lawsuit for gender-based discriminatory compensation. The Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Ledbetter could only sue for damages going back 180 days, and the 180 days was calculated from the time her employment contract was initiated, i.e., her hire date. This new law changes the 180-day period to two years, and also calculates the date from the time of each paycheck, rather than the hire date. -- Ed.]

    Source: S.181&H.R.11 2009-S181 on Jan 29, 2009

    Other governors on Jobs: Mark Begich on other issues:
    AK Gubernatorial:
    Bill Walker
    Charlie Huggins
    Mead Treadwell
    Mike Chenault
    Mike Dunleavy
    Sean Parnell
    AK Senatorial:
    Cean Stevens
    Dan Sullivan
    Joe Miller
    Lisa Murkowski
    Mead Treadwell
    Ray Metcalfe
    Thomas Lamb

    Gubernatorial Debates 2018:
    AK: Walker(i) vs.Dunleavy(D) vs.Chenault(R) vs.Huggins(R) vs.Begich(D) vs.Treadwell(D)
    AL: Kay Ivey(R) vs.Countryman(D) vs.Tommy Battle (R) vs.Walt Maddox (R) vs.George(R) vs.Carrington(R)
    AR: Hutchinson(R) vs.Henderson(D) vs.West(L)
    AZ: Ducey(R) vs.David Garcia (D) vs.Farley(D)
    CA: Newsom(D) vs.Chiang(D) vs.Villaraigosa(D) vs.Delaine Eastin (D) vs.David Hadley (R) vs.John Cox (R) vs.Zoltan Istvan (I) vs.Allen(R) vs.La Riva(P)
    CO: Johnston(D) vs.Mitchell(R) vs.Cary Kennedy (D) vs.Doug Robinson (R) vs.Barlock(R) vs.Lynne(R) vs.Polis(D) vs.Coffman(R) vs.George Brauchler(R,A.G.) vs.Stapleton(R)
    CT: Malloy(D) vs.Lamont(D) vs.Stefanowski(R) vs.Srinivasan(R) vs.David Walker (R) vs.Lumaj(R) vs.Visconti(R) vs.Lauretti(R) vs.Drew(D)
    FL: Gillum(D) vs.Graham(D) vs.Putnam(R) vs.Levine(D) vs.DeSantis(R)
    GA: Kemp(R) vs.Cagle(R) vs.Hill(R) vs.Abrams(D) vs.Levine(D)
    HI: Ige(D) vs.Hanabusa(D) vs.Tupola(R) vs.Carroll(R) vs.McDermott(R)
    IA: Kim_Reynolds(R) vs.Leopold(D) vs.Boulton(D) vs.McGuire(D) vs.Glasson(D) vs.Hubbell(D) vs.Porter(L) vs.Battaglia(L)
    ID: Little(R) vs.Fulcher(R) vs.Labrador(R) vs.Ahlquist(R) vs.Minton(D) vs.Jordan(D)
    IL: Rauner(R) vs.Kennedy(D) vs.Pawar(D) vs.Daniel Biss (D) vs.Pritzker(D) vs.Ives(R)
    KS: Brewer(D) vs.Wink Hartman (R) vs.Colyer(R) vs.Kobach(R) vs.Orman(I) vs.Kelly(D)
    MA: Baker(R) vs.Gonzalez(D) vs.Setti Warren (D) vs.Bob Massie (R)
    MD: Hogan(R) vs.Alec Ross (D) vs.Cummings(D) vs.Madaleno(D) vs.Jealous(D) vs.Quinn(L) vs.Schlakman(G)
    ME: Mayhew(R) vs.Mills(D) vs.Boyle(D) vs.Thibodeau(R) vs.Moody(D) vs.Capron(I) vs.Caron(I)
    MI: Whitmer(R) vs.El-Sayed(D) vs.Tim Walz (D) vs.Schuette(R) vs.Calley(R) vs.Tatar(L)
    MN: vs.Smith(D) vs.Coleman(D) vs.Murphy(D) vs.Otto(D) vs.Tina Liebling (DFL) vs.Tim Walz (DFL) vs.Matt Dean (R) vs.Pawlenty(R) vs.Johnson(R) vs.Swanson(D)
    MO: Greitens(R) vs.Parson(R)
    NE: Ricketts(R) vs.Krist(D)
    NH: Sununu(R) vs.Jarvis(L) vs.Steve Marchand (D)
    NM: Lujan-Grisham(D) vs.Pearce(R) vs.Cervantes(D) vs.Apodaca (D) vs.Jarvis(L)
    NV: Fisher (R) vs.Sisolak(D) vs.Laxalt(R) vs.Schwartz(R)
    NY: Cuomo(D) vs.Nixon(D) vs.Hawkins(G) vs.Molinaro(R)
    OH: DeWine(R) vs.Husted(R,Lt.Gov.) vs.Kucinich(D) vs.Sutton(D,Lt.Gov) vs.Taylor(R) vs.Jim Renacci (R) vs.Connie Pillich (D) vs.Schiavoni(D) vs.Whaley(D) vs.Cordray(D)
    OK: Stitt(R) vs.Cornett(R) vs.Edmondson(D) vs.Richardson(R) vs.Johnson(D) vs.Powell(L) vs.Maldonado(L)
    OR: Brown(D) vs.Scott Inman(D) vs.Buehler(R)
    PA: Wolf(D) vs.Fetterman(D,Lt.Gov.) vs.Wagner(R) vs.Barletta(R) vs.Krawchuk(L)
    RI: Raimondo(D) vs.Brown(D) vs.Fung(R) vs.Morgan(R)
    SC: McMaster(R) vs.McGill(R) vs.Pope(R) vs.Templeton(R) vs.Smith(D) vs.Warren(D) vs.Bryant(R)
    SD: Noem(R) vs.Jackley(R) vs.Sutton(D)
    TN: Green(R) vs.Dean(D) vs.Black(R) vs.Lee(R)
    TX: Abbott(R) vs.Glass(L) vs.White(D) vs.Valdez(D)
    VT: Scott(R) vs.Moody(R) vs.Hallquist(D) vs.Stern(D)
    WI: Walker(R) vs.Harlow(D) vs.Vinehout(D) vs.Evers(D) vs.Roys(D) vs.Anderson(L)
    WY: Throne(D) vs.Dahlin(R) vs.Gordon(R) vs.Rammell(R)
    Gubernatorial Possibilities 2019:
    KY: vs.Grimes(D) vs.Chandler(D) vs.Gray(D)
    LA: vs.Edwards(D) vs.Kennedy(R)
    MS: vs.Baria(D) vs.Sherman(D) vs.Reeves(R) vs.Lott(R)

    Retiring 2018:
    AL-R: Robert Bentley(R)
    (term-limited 2018)
    CA-D: Jerry Brown
    (term-limited 2018)
    CO-D: John Hickenlooper
    (term-limited 2018)
    FL-R: Rick Scott
    (term-limited 2018)
    GA-R: Nathan Deal
    (term-limited 2018)
    ID-R: Butch Otter
    (retiring 2018)
    ME-R: Paul LePage
    (term-limited 2018)
    MI-R: Rick Snyder
    (term-limited 2018)
    MN-D: Mark Dayton
    (retiring 2018)
    NM-R: Susana Martinez
    (term-limited 2018)
    OH-R: John Kasich
    (term-limited 2018)
    OK-R: Mary Fallin
    (term-limited 2018)
    SD-R: Dennis Daugaard
    (term-limited 2018)
    TN-R: Bill Haslam
    (term-limited 2018)
    WY-R: Matt Mead
    (term-limited 2018)
    Abortion
    Budget/Economy
    Civil Rights
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    Crime
    Drugs
    Education
    Energy/Oil
    Environment
    Families/Children
    Foreign Policy
    Free Trade
    Govt. Reform
    Gun Control
    Health Care
    Homeland Security
    Immigration
    Infrastructure/Technology
    Jobs
    Local Issues
    Principles/Values
    Social Security
    Tax Reform
    War/Iraq/Mideast
    Welfare/Poverty


    Contact info:
    Email Contact Form
    Fax Number:
    202-224-2354
    Mailing Address:
    Senate Office SR-144, Washington, DC 20510





    Page last updated: Oct 06, 2018