A Strengthened Middle Class

Andrea Batista Schlesinger and Amy Traub, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy

Middle-class families aren’t looking for a handout. What we need are fair rules and public policies that provide the means to maintain a middle-class standard of living. When the middle-class fundamentals are within reach of most of us, we are all better off economically, culturally, and democratically.

Working Ideas

  • Streamline procedures for employees to decide on union representation and bargain a first contract
  • Set and enforce meaningful penalties for violating labor laws
  • Establish paid family and medical leave for new parents and employees dealing with long personal or family illness
  • Reform unemployment insurance to qualify part-time job seekers, provide job training, and raise the benefits cap

 

Excerpted from Thinking Big: Progressive Ideas for a New Era, our shared agenda for Congress and the Administration.

Click here to order in paperback, or here to download to your Kindle.