Sen. McCrory Approves Raises For Long-Denied Health Care Workers

Posted on May 5, 2018November 4, 2023 by Webmaster

Sen. McCrory Approves Raises For Long-Denied Health Care Workers

State Senator Doug McCrory (D-Hartford) joined a bipartisan vote in the state Senate today that gives thousands of unionized health care workers their first pay raise in over a decade – and avoids a harmful strike at the same time.

Sen. McCrory joined a bipartisan 29-4 Senate vote on House Bill 5460 to give about 2,500 members of the SEIU 1199 labor union a raise of up to 5 percent beginning January 1, 2019. The workers staff about 170 group homes in Connecticut that care for physically and developmentally disabled state residents.

The workers now earn an average hourly wage of $14.19 an hour – about $30,000 a year – which is less than half the average household income in Connecticut. They have not received a cost of living adjustment since 2004.

“I’m happy to stand today in support of a pay raise for thousands of hardworking health care workers who have one of the hardest jobs in Connecticut: caring for folks with disabilities. It’s a job a lot of us couldn’t do. Some of these people have been working 12, 14 hour days for years,” Sen. McCrory said. “These are the parents you never see at the PTO meetings, or at the school play, or the sporting event, because they’re busy working, trying to put food on the table, keeping a roof over their heads. But I see them in church, I talk to them in the grocery store. They told me how important this bill is to them So today I’m giving back, and saying thank you, giving them a pay raise for all the hard work that they do.”

The state House of Representatives had passed the same bill earlier in the week on a 88-62 vote, with just nine Republicans joining all Democrats to vote in favor. The bill now heads to the governor for his signature.

Sen. Winfield Leads Senate Passage of Racial Impact Statement Bill

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Webmaster

Sen. Winfield Leads Senate Passage of Racial Impact Statement Bill

HARTFORD— Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven) yesterday lead bipartisan Senate passage of Senate Bill 256, which requires that a racial and ethnic impact statement be prepared at the request of any legislator. This would allow policymakers to consider the ramifications of potential policies on communities of color and inform their decision-making.

“The provisions of this bill will help my colleagues and me to understand the full impact on the communities of Connecticut of the legislation we propose,” Sen. Winfield said. “By passing this bill, Connecticut lawmakers demonstrate recognition of the fact that the policies created and passed into law in this building can have a disproportionate impact on minority communities.”

Racial impact statements are a tool for lawmakers to evaluate potential disparities of proposed legislation prior to adoption and implementation. They assist legislators in detecting unforeseen policy ramifications on certain communities. According to the bill, a racial impact statement would be prepared by the Office of Legislative Research and the Office of Fiscal Analysis as long as a legislator requests one at least ten days prior to the last day session.

Currently in Connecticut, a racial impact statement can only be requested by a majority of committee members. This bill would allow one to be prepared at the request of any legislator.

The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives for consideration.

Senators Moore and Gomes Vote for Final Passage of Bill to Join National Popular Vote Compact

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Webmaster

Senators Moore and Gomes Vote for Final Passage of Bill to Join National Popular Vote Compact

Democrats in the State Senate today fought for democracy and to make sure every vote counts. In a 21-14 vote, the Senate Democrats stood with 70 percent of Connecticut residents who agree the president should be elected by the national popular vote and led final passage of a bill that allows Connecticut to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, once it goes into effect the states therein choose to allocate their electoral votes to the candidate who garners the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“I think it’s critical that people have confidence in their elections and know that their vote matters whether their voting for their state senators or the presidents of the United States,” Senator Marilyn Moore (D-Bridgeport) said. “Joining the compact to elect the president by national popular vote will ensure that all states, including Connecticut, get the same attention by presidential candidates.”

“Twice in the last 18 years the person elected to the presidency has failed to win a majority of the national popular vote and the Electoral College chose our leader. In those elections, a few swing states ultimately decided the election and the individual votes of Connecticut residents didn’t matter,” Senator Ed Gomes (D-Bridgeport)said. “In order to ensure that every vote counts, the winner of the presidential election should be the person who receives the most votes.”
The compact takes effect only when enough states sign on to guarantee that the national popular vote winner wins the presidency. This means that states with a combined total of 270 electoral votes—a majority of the Electoral College—must join the compact for it to take effect.

To date, 10 states and the District of Columbia possessing 165 electoral votes have approved the interstate compact, which represent 61 percent of the 270 electoral votes necessary to activate it. Connecticut’s neighboring states—New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island—have passed this bill.

The 11 jurisdictions which have already enacted this legislation are physically, politically and geographically diverse: they include four small jurisdictions, three medium-size states, and four large states.

The state-by-state, winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes is not set out in the United States Constitution. It was not debated at the Constitutional Convention, nor was it discussed in the Federalist Papers. The Founding Fathers did not design the system of allocating electoral votes currently used in most states. Rather, the Founding Fathers established the Electoral College and explicitly left allocation of those electoral votes to state legislators in Article II of the U.S. Constitution without any instructions on how states should use it. The winner-take-all rule was used by only three states in the nation’s first presidential election in 1789 (all of which abandoned it by 1800).

A study of the evolution of the Electoral College notes that, during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the delegates said they “distrusted the passions of the people,” and particularly distrusted the ability of average voters to choose a president in a national election. The result was the creation of the Electoral College, a system that at that time gave each state a number of electors based on the size of its Congressional delegation. Because there were no political parties back then, it was assumed that electors would use their best judgment to select a president. The concept was that the electors would filter the “passions of the people” and provide a check on the public in case they made a poor choice for president.

Senator Larson Votes for Final Passage of Bill to Join National Popular Vote Compact

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Webmaster

Senator Larson Votes for Final Passage of Bill to Join National Popular Vote Compact

Democrats in the State Senate today fought for democracy and to make sure every vote counts. In a 21-14 vote, the Senate Democrats stood with more than 70 percent of Connecticut residents who agree the president should be elected by the national popular vote and led final passage of a bill that allows Connecticut to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

“The shortcomings of the current ‘winner take all’ system for Electoral College votes ensures that the president’s attention is only given to battleground states. Those states receive the most visits during campaign and more federal funding,” Senator Tim Larson (D-East Hartford) said. “This bill would ensure that every single vote in every single state would matter in every presidential election and that states like Connecticut get the attention it deserves from the President.”
The compact takes effect only when enough states sign on to guarantee that the national popular vote winner wins the presidency. This means that states with a combined total of 270 electoral votes—a majority of the Electoral College—must join the compact for it to take effect.

Senate Democrats Lead Final Passage of Gender Pay Equity Bill

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Webmaster

Senate Democrats Lead Final Passage of Gender Pay Equity Bill

Democrats in the State Senate today led final legislative passage (35-1) of HB 5386, An Act Concerning Pay Equity. Under this bill, employers would be prohibited from asking prospective employees about their previous wages, as evidence shows women disproportionately carry lower salaries from one job to the next.

“Here in Connecticut women are still earning 83 cents to every dollar that their male counterparts are,” said Senate President Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven). “This disparity results in an annual wage gap of nearly $11,000. This gap only increases in the case of Latino and African American women, compared to their white male counterparts. This legislation would be key to reducing the poverty rate of single, working mothers in the state, which is currently at 24.4 percent and will help prevent women from being locked into the status of being offered lower salaries because they were underpaid in their previous jobs”

“It is a crime that in the United States, in 2018, women are not on a level playing field when it comes to their wages,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk). “Women should earn equal pay for equal work. If Connecticut wants to retain young people, attract top talent and grow the middle class, passing bills like earned family medical leave bill, a pay equity bill and raising the minimum wage will give Connecticut a competitive advantage and send a message that our state values its workers and is a great place to live and raise a family.”

“The pay equity bill that we passed tonight will provide a mechanism for women to realize their true value in the workplace, not the value based on questions about their salary history, which is a historically inequitable salary history to begin with,” said Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) who led Senate passage of the measure. “The impact of this change is going to be enormous: another $2 million over an average woman’s lifetime, according to some estimates. That means less poverty, more money in our economy, a better retirement, and more to pass on to the next generation. All thanks to the simple notion of equal pay for equal work.”

“Equal pay can improve conditions for all families and ensure that women have proper retirement savings. Right now, women have to work 11 years more than a man to achieve the same standard of living in retirement,” said Senator Beth Bye (D-West Hartford). “Our pay equity bill tonight will help women earn what they deserve for life.”

“Pay inequity is a very serious problem across our country and in our state. We’ve heard a lot in recent years about the disparity in pay with women earning on average 80 cents for every dollar that men earn,” Senator Mae Flexer (D-Danielson) said. “But I also want to emphasize how it’s significantly worse for black women and Latina women, who earn 59 cents and 48 cents respectively for every dollar that a white man earns. That means they have to work twice as many hours to earn the same as a man. These statistics are completely unacceptable, and I’m so glad that Connecticut is catching up with Massachusetts by passing this equal pay bill. Also, having a law like this is important to Connecticut’s economy because it’s the kind of policy that keeps young people in our state by showing them we are a place that puts fairness at the forefront. This bill is going to go a long way toward not just addressing pay inequity, but also making Connecticut a place where people want to live a family.”

“I stood today in strong support of women—and the families that depend on them—by voting in favor of pay equity in Connecticut,” Senator Marilyn Moore (D-Bridgeport) said. “This will be especially helpful to black and Latina women in my district who according to current statistics each earn almost half of what white men earn. In fact, for black women, Equal Pay Day is not until July 31. Meaning that theoretically, black women have to work until that day in the current year in order to earn what a white man earned in the previous year. This bill ensures that women, regardless of race, are not discriminated against when negotiating her salary and will help boost the state’s economy by putting more money into the pockets of women our workforce.”

“Today the Senate took a step toward creating equitable opportunities for everyone by passing legislation that would close the gender wage gap,” Labor Committee co-chair Senator Ed Gomes (D-Bridgeport) said. “I am proud to live in a state that supports fair treatment of women and proudly vote in favor of this bill that will help working women maintain economic stability for themselves and their families.”

On average, unfair pay costs each working woman in Connecticut more than $10,000 every year. According to the National Women’s Law Center, women in Connecticut—on average—have to work until age 70 to earn what a man makes by the time he is 60.

The Senate Democrats originally introduced the legislation as a cornerstone of their Democratic Values agenda in order to help employees who take leave for pregnancy and other parental-related leave.