OPINION | Opportunity gaps persist after college graduation

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In roughly three months’ time, as classrooms fill and teachers work to engage and motivate their new charges, many students will hear a time-honored presentation on the importance of a college degree. College degrees, they will be told, increase your likelihood of getting a job, and they increase how much you will be paid over the course of your career.These things are true, but too often we use these facts to conclude that our society-wide inequities would be fixed if only we could help students from all races and backgrounds graduate from college at equal rates. If only that were true.Nationally in 2013, young black college graduates (those between 22 and 27) had an unemployment rate more than twice the overall average for young college graduates. Roughly one out of eight young black college graduates were unemployed (meaning that they were seeking employment but did not yet have a job), compared to one out of eighteen young college graduates overall.Disparities persist even with age and experience. As of May 2014, the unemployment rate for whites 25 and over with a college degree was 2.7%. Continue Reading

What’s needed to ‘move on up’ in Minnesota?

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The scene opens to a shot of a rental truck rolling down the streets of Manhattan. Cue the music, “Well we’re movin’ on up.” A taxi cab trails behind the truck. “To the East Side.” In the back seat of the cab are George and Louise Jefferson, who are moving “to a deluxe apartment in the sky.”

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Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Gregory Gray reflects on a lifetime of public service

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“I think the one thing that links most of my career in public service has been some type of advocacy or support for communities of color and low-income communities,” says Gregory Gray, looking back at his many years of life and service in the public sector. Gray’s service has included stints with the Minneapolis Urban League, the Minnesota House Minority Caucus, Community Action of Minneapolis, and the Legislative Commission to End Poverty By 2020, as well as working with former Minnesota State Representative Neva Walker on immigration issues.

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Housekeepers more injury prone than coal miners

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Hotel room cleaning is a backbreaking job, with intense workloads, time pressures and repetitive lifting motions. Four weeks prior to the date they were interviewed, ninety-five percent of housekeepers reported enduring occupational-related injuries – according to one survey of 1,000 Las Vegas hotel workers. Most of these workers barely make a living wage while their employers are making millions in profits off their labor. Women and people of color are disproportionately bearing the brunt of these unsafe working conditions.Housekeeping work is characterized by demanding workloads, intense time pressure and repetitive lifting motions. According to a report by Puget Sound Sage (Sage) on working conditions for hospitality workers in the Seattle area, housekeepers across the nation clean an average of 15 or more rooms per day, at a rate of 30 minutes per room. Continue Reading