A How-To Guide for Strengthening State and Local Prevailing Wage Laws
Raising Standards for Government-Funded Work
December 22, 2020, 9:02 am Getty/John Moore
A custodian cleans ahead of the return of students at a school in Stamford, Connecticut, August 2020.
Julia Cusick
Introduction and summary
State and local governments spend billions of dollars each year on goods and services that are provided by private companies.
1 Yet, all too often, this spending undermines the labor standards of high-road companies that pay good wages and benefits, delivers jobs that pay poverty wages, and provides poor value to taxpayers. Policymakers can help ensure that government dollars uphold local market wages, support high-quality jobs, and deliver value to taxpayers by enacting prevailing wage laws, which require recipients of government funding to provide workers with wages and fringe benefits that are comparable to those paid to other similarly placed workers in the region.
Reimagining child care in New Jersey, funding and access
If there has been one truism brought to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that child care is critically important.
In almost every sector of life, the need for quality and affordable child care has affected children and their families, businesses and their employees, and the state’s recovery as a whole.
NJ Spotlight News last week hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on the critical role that child care will play in the restart of New Jersey’s economy.
The following are edited excerpts from the discussion:
Economic case for early childhood care
Things got interesting during Governor Phil Murphy s COVID-19 press briefing on Monday. You might call this one #meatgate.
As business people across the state watched nervously, always waiting for the other shoe to drop and more restrictions to be announced, a slogan appeared on the screen which got some people s attention. You can’t beat our meat.
Listen folks, this was simply Phil Murphy trying to pay praise to a New Jersey business as it struggles its way through a challenging pandemic year. The presser showed a 1911 Smoke House bar-b-que panel on the screen but at the bottom of that was the restaurant s phrase. You can’t beat our meat.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Today, the New Jersey Legislature passed the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Act, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is expected to sign it into law in the coming days/weeks. Pursuant to the Act, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (the NJEDA) will create a fund, called the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund (the Fund), to invest in early-stage and emerging growth companies in New Jersey. The Fund is expected to be capitalized with approximately $250 million over the next five years through competitive auctions of state tax credits. All Fund investments into New Jersey companies must be matched by qualified venture firms, yielding a total of at least $500 million in venture capital investment in early-stage and emerging growth companies in New Jersey over the next several years.
Press Releases
Over 100 New Jersey Leaders Come Out in Support of Economic Recovery and Tax Incentives Reform Legislation December 21, 2020, 11:56 am | in
Over 100 New Jersey Leaders Come Out in Support of Economic Recovery and Tax Incentives Reform Legislation
12/20/2020
TRENTON – Over 100 leaders in government, the private sector, and labor from across the state expressed their support for the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, which will be voted on in the Legislature on Monday:
GOVERNOR MURPHY AND LEGISLATORS
“We are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement on a comprehensive economic recovery package that will support small businesses, drive sustainable economic growth, and reform our tax incentives system. This plan will specifically target historically underserved communities that have also been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with tailored programs to combat food deserts, spur brownfields redevelopment, and suppor