Yesterday we stood with labor allies and released our new report, A Roadmap to Compliance: Strengthening Worker Protections in Minneapolis Construction. We called on the city to take bold steps to eliminate wage theft, retaliation, sexual assault, and labor trafficking.

We love to brag when Minnesota is the best. This isn’t a list we want to be high on. Minnesota has the fourth largest teacher pay penalty in the country. Our teachers make 33% less than other workers with a college degree. Nationwide, the gap is the largest it’s ever been and growing.

Minnesota's Republican Members of Congress voting to hurt tens of thousands of their constituents, so they can send even more money to their billionaire supporters. This is the real class warfare, and Minnesotans are losing.

This is solidarity! ✊ THANK YOU to everyone in our pro-labor community who showed up and spoke up yesterday to protect prevailing wage for Bloomington workers. 🗣️ Together, we did it. 👉 We’ll keep showing up when pro-worker policies are up for debate. #WhenWeFightWeWin #BloomingtonMN #prevailingwage

Just wait until people find out their health care and food costs are skyrocketing, and their kids' childcare is closing all so that we could spend $170 billion more doing this unpopular stuff.

The Giant Nightmare bill moving through the Senate is bad. Really bad. Our @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social wrote about the growing threat to workers and consumers from AI, and why we needed Minnesota's members of Congress to strike this moratorium on regulations. www.startribune.com/big-beautifu...

📉Our State of Working Minnesota report finds a major shift: fewer Minnesotans are earning poverty wages. In 2024, the share of workers earning below poverty wages dropped by more than 12%. Recent gains have been particularly strong in communities of color. 🔗 northstarpolicy.org/sowmn-2025/

Health insurers are reporting 14-26% increase in health care costs in MN next year, driven by Trump and Congressional Republicans cutting people's health insurance. 🚨NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THIS DISASTROUS BILL. Even if you get to keep your insurance, your premiums are about to skyrocket!

Great rundown of labor legislation from @maxnesterak.bsky.social and @minnesotareformer.com. Lots of great pro-worker defense! Also happy to see our worker misclassification numbers cited and even happier to see that MN will be carrying out its own analysis thanks to @emmagreenman.bsky.social

As @mprnews.org points out, MN passed almost no new AI laws even as the federal gov't seeks to ban state AI regulation for 10 years. We found that 500,000 MN workers are at high risk of AI impact and highlighted ways to align AI innovation with worker welfare. The time for action is now!

Our State of Working Minnesota report shows the state’s Black unemployment rate is the lowest in the Midwest after being the region’s highest during the Great Recession. The gap between Black and white unemployment is at its lowest level in decades. There’s more work to do, but progress matters.

📉Our State of Working Minnesota report finds a major shift: fewer Minnesotans are earning poverty wages. In 2024, the share of workers earning below poverty wages dropped by more than 12%. Recent gains have been particularly strong in communities of color. 🔗 northstarpolicy.org/sowmn-2025/

📈Minnesota just hit 3 million jobs for the first time in state history, as reported in our new State of Working Minnesota report. The biggest gains? Construction, education, and health care—sectors that fuel our economy and strengthen our communities. Read more: minnesotareformer.com/2025/06/05/m...

"We don’t have to choose between abundant housing and fair pay. In fact, the best way to build more homes quickly and sustainably is to restore the natural alliance between pro-housing advocates and the people who build housing." Our @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social together with @moreneighbors.org

Rep. Stauber likes to say he's "fighting for our way of life." Casting the deciding vote for the GOP budget shows he's fighting for Wall Street execs in NYC and tech billionaires in San Fran, not working families in MN's 8th Congressional District. www.duluthnewstribune.com/opinion/colu...

Last week, Rep. Fischbach cast the deciding vote for a budget bill that will hurt her constituents. They will lose health insurance, food assistance, jobs and more. It will send that money to the richest Americans, people who don’t live in Western MN. www.inforum.com/opinion/lett...

Last week, Rep. Fischbach cast the deciding vote for a budget bill that will hurt her constituents. They will lose health insurance, food assistance, jobs and more. It will send that money to the richest Americans, people who don’t live in Western MN. www.inforum.com/opinion/lett...

Rep. Stauber likes to say he's "fighting for our way of life." Casting the deciding vote for the GOP budget shows he's fighting for Wall Street execs in NYC and tech billionaires in San Fran, not working families in MN's 8th Congressional District. www.duluthnewstribune.com/opinion/colu...

Oh look, another way Trump's budget bill hurts the working class. Stealing jobs from working people and increasing energy costs to funnel even more money to the rich. www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/c...

In addition to stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and screwing over workers who will be hurt by AI, the bill also contains a $5 billion private school voucher program. Read here for our take on why vouchers are such a bad idea. www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

The GOP Congress is planning a massive bill that will give huge tax cuts to the rich while taking health care and food from the poor. And it has lots of other bad ideas, like prohibiting states from regulating AI. Our research shows why this is such a bad idea. northstarpolicy.org/progress-and...

Government services are good, actually.

In addition to stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and screwing over workers who will be hurt by AI, the bill also contains a $5 billion private school voucher program. Read here for our take on why vouchers are such a bad idea. www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

The GOP Congress is planning a massive bill that will give huge tax cuts to the rich while taking health care and food from the poor. And it has lots of other bad ideas, like prohibiting states from regulating AI. Our research shows why this is such a bad idea. northstarpolicy.org/progress-and...

Just as our report shows people of color would be disproportionately hurt by Medicaid cuts, this story in the @minnesotareformer.com shows Black and Latino doctors would also feel the pain. All so the rich can get richer. minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/28/m...

70% of Black children in Minnesota get their health care through Medicaid. 66% of American Indian/Alaska Native children do. Half of Latino children. More than a third of AAPI children. Almost a quarter of White children. This is who the GOP is stealing from so they can give that money to the rich.

This left graph showing tax breaks in terms of dollar amounts vs percentages illustrates how expensive it is to cut taxes for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the small breaks given to the poorest 40% are dwarfed by cuts to social programs.

Trump's Medicaid cuts will be especially devastating for rural Minnesota. Seniors, adults and children in rural Minnesota all depend on Medicaid at a higher rate than their urban counterparts, but the disparities among children are especially large. northstarpolicy.org/medical-assi...

The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress are planning a Reverse Robin Hood: stealing health care from the working class to give tax cuts to the rich. Our policy brief shows what’s at risk, and how Minnesota should respond. northstarpolicy.org/medical-assi...

With the federal cuts to essential services in MN, it feels like we're in a bad movie. On the blog, we imagine the movie pitch: the richest man in the world cuts services to lower rich people's taxes. It's a terrible script. The reality is even worse. 🧵 northstarpolicy.org/unbelievable...

Quick reminder.

Quick reminder.

The author of this piece sits on our Research Advisory Committee. He just lost his job because of Elon Musks's cuts. But he's more concerned about all the workers who will be harmed on the job as programs like NIOSH are destroyed. www.startribune.com/heres-how-th...

Cases like this one are why we point to prevailing wage laws as a way to fight wage theft. On a prevailing wage project, contractors have to file certified payroll reports. This wage theft was discovered because the contractor falsified those docs. minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/10/p...

Today would be a good day for those who claim to represent the interests of businesses to fight back against the disastrous policies of the Trump Administration. Are they actually pro-business, or just anti-worker? northstarpolicy.org/misplaced-bu...

Check out the @minnesotareformer.com's coverage of our research into child labor in Minnesota, including a great round-up of how conservative-led states are putting kids in harm's way. minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/26/r...

A month ago, we released Diverting Dollars, a report warning against the adoption of private school vouchers in Minnesota. In part, our research showed that voucher programs hurt students attending public schools AND students using the vouchers. northstarpolicy.org/diverting-do...

"Minnesota public school districts could lose $209 million in the first year of a voucher program." - @northstarpolicy.org Vouchers are a bad deal for Minnesota students and taxpayers, it really is that simple. #mnleg www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

“Our schools need help, there’s no denying that. Stripping more funding from our already depleted public schools to give students a worse education so that the rich can get richer cannot be the answer.” www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

Today, Republicans in the #mnleg are bringing their bill to delay the start of Paid Family and Medical Leave to the floor for a vote. The debate will surely contain a lot of misinformation as they attack this protection for working Minnesotans. Get the facts: northstarpolicy.org/pfml-and-ess...

ON THE BLOG: One would think that MN's business leaders should be sounding the alarm about Trump's anti-business chaos. Instead, they’re busy blaming common-sense worker protections for the economic headwinds that are blowing straight in from Washington. northstarpolicy.org/misplaced-bu...

This week in Congress, Republicans passed a reverse Robin Hood budget: stealing from the poor to give to the rich. The budget cuts billions of dollars from Medicaid and uses that money for huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

📢 Today, we released our latest report, which reveals how vouchers to pay for private and religious schools would drain public schools of millions of $$, exacerbate inequality, and weaken education across the state. 🧵⬇️ northstarpolicy.org/diverting-dollars

There’s lots of focus on fraud in the Minnesota legislature. But we couldn’t help but notice there’s a multi billion dollar fraud that’s not getting anywhere near the same attention. www.startribune.com/as-minnesota...

Republicans in the #mnleg are attacking Paid Leave and Earned Sick and Safe Time programs, falsely claiming these programs will damage businesses and Minnesota's economy. We're setting the record straight about these important programs: northstarpolicy.org/pfml-and-ess...

Numbers of MNs on these programs: Medicaid: 1,167,618 CHIP: 4,620 Head Start: 12,775 CCDBG: 19,300 SNAP: 458,405 WIC: 101,301 School Lunch Program: 650,823 IDEA Part B: 151,845 Project Based Section 8: 49,874 HCV: 89,803 LIHEAP: 133,166 www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

Today our research was the centerpiece of an important conversation about AI's impact on Minnesota's workers at the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee. AI adoption is moving faster than our public policies, and workers are already feeling the effects. northstarpolicy.org/progress-and...

Great research in the Reformer today. Not from us, we just like it. "We urge public health officials to consider worker power and worker voice a fundamental social determinant of health, one which has helped create the mortality crisis that we currently face." minnesotareformer.com/2025/01/30/w...

In the @startribune.com today, our Research Director @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social lays out what's at stake for Minnesota's communities, workers, and energy consumers if Trump attacks Biden's infrastructure investments. www.startribune.com/dont-claw-ba...

Check out @mprnews.org's interview with @aaronrosenthal.bsky.social about our latest research into how AI could impact Minnesota's workers. www.mprnews.org/episode/2025...