Here’s what the people at the Capital Center for Law & Policy have been reading and thinking about this week, aside from the obvious major headlines about Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort that broke on Tuesday.
Leslie Gielow Jacobs
New York Times
It’s Not Technology That’s Disrupting Our Jobs by Louis Hyman
This opinion pieces reminds us that “technological advances” may facilitate the gig economy, but they do not cause it. Rather, the lack of job security, benefits, and minimum daily wages are the result of decisions made by corporate managers and government policymakers over the last number of decades. So, the consequences many lament are the results of deliberate choices, and particular views of corporate and government responsibilities. They are not inevitable results of the forward march of technology.
Jon Wainwright
San Francisco Gate
Safe Injection Sites In SF Closer To Fruition After State Senate Vote by Bay City News Service
AB 186 bill piqued my interest last year when it was initially introduced by Asm. Susan Talamantes-Eggman. The bill in its original form “would have authorized eight counties with heavy intravenous drug use to create pilot “safe injection sites.”” It immediately reminded me of Hamsterdam from Season 3 of The Wire. The updated bill would allow for three-year pilot program in just San Francisco. AB 186 still needs to be signed by the Governor if it is going to have any impact, but given the need to address the drug addiction problem in San Francisco, I am very interested in seeing the kind of impact legislation like this could have for the city.
Erin O’Neal Muilenburg – Career Advisor
Law.com
New Case at US Supreme Court Tests Gender Pay Disparities by Erin Mulvaney
“Salaries speak louder than words.” Judge Reinhardt’s words jumped off the page and caught my attention when I read the news of the recent decision in the pay equity case Rizo v. Yovino, in which the Ninth Circuit held that an employee’s salary history cannot be used to justify paying men and women differently for comparable jobs. This issue may well be making its way to the Supreme Court. In addition to the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling, the federal appellate courts are currently split, with the Tenth and Eleventh Circuit holding that salary history alone cannot be used as an exemption to equal pay laws, and the Seventh Circuit ruling that previous salary can be considered. Particularly in light of Justice Kennedy’s recent departure, and the effect on the Court’s jurisprudence that is likely to result from a newly appointed Justice, it will be important for both employees and employers to watch these issues closely.