Great story from @mprnews.org on our recent report release and efforts to end wage theft for non-unionized construction workers in Minneapolis. It's time to move from whack-a-mole reactive enforcement to across-the-board proactive compliance.

Gov'ts should evolve from reactive whack-a-mole enforcement, where benefits of unlawful exploitation outweigh risk-adjusted costs of getting caught, with proactive pre-qualification that elevated and selects for good actors, demonstrated by measurable investments in workers (health care, training).

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.

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.

#CoolJobAlert Come work with me! This is an incredible opportunity to design a communications strategy aimed at helping working Minnesotans thrive! Feel free to reach out with any questions! northstarpolicy.org/hiring/

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...

My commentary in the @startribune.com highlights a lower profile piece of the Big Horrible Bill: a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation. With AI capacity advancing rapidly, we need policies that align worker welfare with AI innovation, NOT a full ban on state reform.

Not a fan of the headline here. Trump's approval ratings in MN may be near "first-term highs" as the headline points out, but so are his disapproval ratings! At 54%, more Minnesotans disapprove of Trump today than in September of 2020, mid-pandemic and 2 months before he lost an election!

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!

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!

📉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/

Lots to celebrate for working Minnesotans. Unfortunately, that also means a lot to worry about, with pending federal cuts threatening so much of the progress made in the North Star State.

"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

People who build homes 🤝 Abundant housing advocates. These are natural allies, so it's been concerning to see them pitted against each other. I wrote this post for @moreneighbors.org to call for a pro-housing, pro-labor coalition to come together to build more and build right.

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...

I would love to hear someone (and particularly MN's Republican Congressional delegation) explain how this proposal isn't a loss for everyone. Fewer jobs. ✅ Less clean energy. ✅ More expensive electricity. ✅ Trillions of dollars in lost private investment. ✅ 👏MAKE👏IT👏MAKE👏SENSE

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...

I love paying taxes and knowing they’re helping people get medical care, food, and help with housing. Do we think “Make taxes great again” could be a thing?

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.

The Trump administration wants to take health care away from working people to cut taxes for the rich. Minnesota then has a choice: play into Trump's hands and cut Medical Assistance. Or (and I know this may sound silly) KEEP TAXES ON THE RICH IN THE SAME PLACE SO PEOPLE STILL HAVE HEALTH CARE.

Post in which I reimagine pitching the DOGE cuts as a bad movie. If only that were true....

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...

Hoping to retire at 80. Not being able to get a tooth pulled. Eating toast for dinner so your son can eat a full meal. Minnesota grocery store workers deserve so much better. minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/15/o...

Great piece in the Strib today from Minnesota's own Adam Moskowitz on how Musk's DOGE cuts are hurting workers twice over by laying off talented people whose jobs protect other workers from harm. The Trump administration's hostility towards working people is so transparent.

Today would also be a good day

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...

OPINION | Jake Schwitzer, North Star Policy Action executive director “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.” buff.ly/nl77mtM

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...

Great op-ed from @jakeschwitzer.bsky.social in today's @minnpost.bsky.social based on the recent report from @northstarpolicy.org. Vouchers hurt kids while primarily benefitting one constituency: the wealthy.

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MN looks bad here: Third most expensive infant care in the US. Infant care costs $10k more than in-state tuition and 31.5% more than average rent. A child care worker would have to spend 70% of their income to put their child in infant care. Time for #mnleg to make child care more affordable!

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 really put a bee in my bonnet yesterday so I did a whole dang blog post: northstarpolicy.org/misplaced-bu...

What's a bigger threat to Minnesota's businesses, paid family leave or pointless trade wars? How much time/funding are Minnesota's business leaders spending fighting each of these threats? www.startribune.com/minnesota-st...

Somewhere, Jeff Bezos is angrily clicking “track shipment” to see what happened to his new editorial page.

*clears throat, takes deep breath, steps up to microphone* THE GOP WANTS TO TAKE HEALTH CARE AWAY FROM WORKING PEOPLE IN ORDER TO FUND TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY

I put this post together because it feels like this needs to be shouted from every rooftop: THE GOP PASSED A BUDGET THAT FUNDS TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH BY TAKING HEALTH CARE AWAY FROM WORKING PEOPLE! That can't be said often enough. Keep saying it until everyone hears it and internalizes it.

Our report shows an important point about private school vouchers: they take money from public schools to help the rich. On average, 75% of voucher funds go to wealthy families already paying for private schools. And vouchers are often funded through enormously generous tax credits for the wealthy.

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...

Tune in to the City of St Paul's Black History Month virtual panel on African Americans in the Labor Movement. engagestpaul.org/empowering-p...

Really appreciated the chance to present our AI report to the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee today. Looking forward to pro-worker AI legislation in the North Star State!

Government can work for billionaires or it can work for workers–but not both. We’re launching the Department of People Who Work for a Living – our own made-up department to hold Elon Musk accountable and make the government work for working people. Join us:

From this morning

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...

My piece in today's @startribune.com shows the value of federal investments in clean energy infrastructure for all of MN. Every corner of the state has benefitted, with particularly large gains for rural communities. www.startribune.com/dont-claw-ba...

Read about our AI research in this week's Break Room from @minnesotareformer.com.

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...