Did you know: 42% of U.S. workers get no sick days

42% of the workers in the U.S. private sector are unable to take a paid day off when they're ill.

That's 44 million workers without that benefit include. (Only 4.2 million of these have not been on the job long enough to be eligible for paid sick days.)


Source: Institute for Women's Policy Research

A Global Fight for Jobs

Tonight President Obama articulated in his State of the Union speech what is at stake: a global fight for jobs.  Outsourcing American jobs by American companies for over 2 decades has created a tipping point for the American middle class.  In order to restore American prosperity, jobs must be created here.  That's not to say that no American company should hire employees overseas - that would be absurd.  But jobs that can be done in America, and be done cost competitively, should be done in America. Do we really need H&R Block accountants abroad doing our taxes? Or radiologists looking at our X-rays? Or American Express credit card service representatives?  American wages are competitive with those abroad.

It is time for American companies to stop taking the easy road and to start looking in their own backyard for employees. 

Beware of Credit Card Company Telephone Practices

Minnesota’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Discover Bank. The suit says that Discover was engaging in deceptive practices to enroll cardholders into its payment protection program and similar offerings.

Here's what some consumers have said:

• Discover routinely calls me and offers me services I don't want. They're pretty pushy about it. 
• Bank of America credit card services tried to do this to me 2 weeks ago for their credit monitoring service.
• Over the past weekend, I received four phone calls from Discover in a 48-hour period, with the same message left each time: "This is ____ from Discover calling. It is important that you return this call to 800-xxx-xxxx." As a cardholder, I became concerned about misuse of my card or account number, and I called back, only to be grilled for confirmation details . . . and then "offered" an expensive protection package. Clever sales ploy indeed, but met with only an abrupt hang-up at my end, once I understood the real purpose of their harrassing and worrisome calls.

Read other consumer responses and stories.