What is wage theft? Wage theft is any form of illegal underpayment or non-payment of wages earned by workers and can take various forms. • Overtime: employer fails to pay 1 ½ times the regular pay rate after 40 hours of work in a week. • Minimum wage: employer pays less than the minimum wage. • Being required to “work off the books:” working through lunch breaks or other required breaks, forced to work after having “clocked out” or after work hours are done, being compelled to attend meetings or events as part of the job, but not being paid to do so. • Not giving a final paycheck: this type of wage theft often happens with employers who go out of business or who move. • Stealing some (or all) of an employee’s tips: the employer is not entitled to any of an employee’s tips, which are part of his or her wages. • Falsifying the records of hours worked: shortening the official record of hours worked to be less than the actual hours. • Misclassifying an employees as an “independent contractor:” classifying an employee as an independent business steals from that employee by requiring him or her to lose benefits such as unemployment compensation and workers compensation, and transfers extra taxes onto him or her.

Businesses and homeowners on LBI will suffer if vacation time is cancelled due to non-accessible beaches. Please change dates to end replenishment by Jun 20th and start up again August 29th, 2015. Our economy thanks you!

For the past 6 days, farm workers in Baja Norte’s San Quintín Valley have been on strike denouncing abysmally low wages, 12-hour days with no overtime, obligatory 7-day work weeks, and maltreatment. Worker Ana López says, “It is time for us to stand up… There are people who think that because we come from pueblos, we are ignorant about our rights.” The United Farm Workers of America is standing in solidarity with the workers from San Quintín and we ask that our supporters do the same. Ana works for Driscoll supplier Berrymex, whom workers claim that in addition to violating wage and hour laws, also fails to pay into workers’ social security (which is supposed to give workers access to healthcare and a pension), leaving them with nothing when they go to make a claim. Demand that the grocery retail industry hold powerful agribusiness companies such as Driscoll accountable. Please sign this petition. We will be turning this in to top grocery retailers around the country, including Target, Walmart, Krogers, and Albertsons/Safeway.

Working people should not have to depend on the government to care for themselves. Forty hours of honest work should equal a fair wage.

Maine's current minimum wage is $7.50/hour. Over fifty-two 40-hour weeks, that adds up to $15, 600/year. The Federal Poverty Guideline for 2015 is $15, 930 for a household of 2. This could mean a single parent of 1 child, a working senior citizen with a disabled spouse, or many other situations. If we as a society want people to work for their living, then the very possibility of doing that must be legislated. For a family of 3 (eg. single parent, two children), the Federal Guideline is $20 090. Divided by fifty-two 40-hour weeks, this comes to an hourly wage of $9.66. Minimum-wage employers pay minimum wage because it's required. Decent employers pay more. This should be done because it's basic human decency. This is not even accounting for daycare, nor for people getting sick or having time off to spend with their families and friends. Raise Minimum Wage to a Living Wage.

Please require all Michigan employers to provide paid sick days. It's the right thing to do!

On February 12, those making a million dollars a year reached the annual tax cap. After that day, none of their income will be taxed to pay for Social Security. Meanwhile, 94% of Americans -- those who make less than $118,500 a year -- will chip in a portion of every single paycheck, all year long. That’s right. A single mother working as an ER nurse pays 6.2% of every paycheck toward Social Security, 12 months out of the year. Meanwhile, a wealthy investment banker on Wall Street isn’t paying a dime into the system for the rest of 2015. They say we can’t afford Social Security. No. We can’t afford to keep giving unfair tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires! Add your name. Sign the petition and tell Congress it’s time to end the Social Security tax break for millionaires!

This petition was created because legislation is needed to stop businesses from taking advantage of the loophole that allows for unreasonable and incomparable decreases in property taxes and is a violation of the state tax law. These tax cuts require budget cuts to publicly funded programs and services such as education, libraries, road maintenance and repair, search and rescue, senior services, veterans affairs and recreational facilities that support thriving communities.

Each year that goes by things are getting more and more expensive. Young adults that are younger than the age of 16 should have the right to start working to either start saving for college or to help support their family.

It is unfair to make it hard to live or work in the city and have to worry about parking! The city of New Orleans does not make from parking meters, just a percentage of the tickets issued. A privately-owned company from out of state called Standard Parking Corp. makes money. It profits from New Orleans and the city of Chicago, while residents, small business owners, people who work in city, and visitors suffer. Some people do not even make what they spend in parking. Residents have to pay for parking, as do people who come to shop--wasting money that could have actually helped the city of New Orleans. These meters are owned by a private company that are only helping themselves, so in order for New Orleans to get a cut, they have to enforce and put in more meters and issue more tickets. Parking should be free for people who work in the city, period. Some locals have to pay what they make an hour in salary for parking. Also, a lot of the parking meters are broken and people still get tickets from them parking near them. These meters are destroying the city of New Orleans, making it hard on small businesses, and people commuting to work or to visit friends in area, residents, and even tourists who don't want to walk for two hours without worrying about a meter running out. Not everyone has a cell phone to download an app and pay. Some people do not even have credit cards. I am starting this petition against Standard Parking Corp, who is contracted with the city and now owns Central Parking lot--not the city of New Orleans and Mayor Landrieu! The Standard Parking Corp. Parking Meter company is based out of the state, monopolizing pay to park so their stocks can rise. It's a huge greedy corporate scam! Standard Parking Corp. is under contract with the city of New Orleans, who is not making that much money off the meters ad parking, unless more people get tickets, issued by them, hence all the broke meters! I have a picture of a waitress at IHOP who had to go outside to feed a meter. She most likely makes $2/hr and feeds the meter every hour. This is a prime example of the greedy stock market, capitalizing on the human needing to be somewhere at a certain time! These city officials think they are helping the city, but they are only helping themselves.

This petition is an effort to turn our nation away from its path of perpetual war and toward other options for conflict resolution. It is also a response to the increased level of violence in our own communities, schools, and prisons. I often feel personally powerless to affect change in these trends toward greater violence, but this bill gives me hope for a voice of peace in Washington.

Nobody should be denied employment based on the fact they use marijuana legally. Employers will also benefit as they will have more job applicants to choose from.