While Wall Street celebrates record highs, Main Street grapples with rising costs that strain household budgets.Dollar Tree, once synonymous with affordability, has seen its pricing structure evolve significantly.In 2021, the company increased its baseline price from $1 to $1.25, and by 2025, introduced items priced up to $10 in select stores.
For residents in food deserts—areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food—stores like Dollar Tree serve as essential sources for groceries.However, these stores often stock predominantly ultra-processed foods, contributing to dietary challenges.A study by Tufts, Harvard, and the USDA found that while dollar store food purchases scored low on the Healthy Eating Index, households shopping there didn’t significantly differ in overall diet quality from those shopping primarily at grocery stores.
The expansion of dollar stores in low-income communities has been linked to exacerbating food insecurity.These stores often lack fresh produce and healthy staples, leading to diets high in processed foods.Research indicates that small food retailers are less likely than supermarkets to sell healthy staple foods, further entrenching food insecurity in these areas.
Despite the financial gains reflected in the stock market, the affordability gap widens for working-class families.Economic gains at the top do not trickle down to the communities that need them most.As investment portfolios swell, the affordability gap grows, and the promise of basic necessities remains increasingly out of reach.For working-class families and those living in under-resourced neighborhoods, the soaring market feels less like a sign of prosperity and more like a reminder of growing inequality.
In addition to rising costs, recent changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are further impacting low-income households.A new law backed by the Trump administration and signed in July 2025 is set to reduce SNAP benefits for 2.4 million Americans by expanding work requirements to additional groups, including parents of children aged 14 and up, adults aged 55–64, veterans, former foster youth, and homeless individuals.The legislation requires these groups to work, volunteer, or participate in job training for at least 80 hours per month to qualify.This expansion is expected to shift more costs to states and redistribute resources, increasing income for middle- and high-income households while reducing benefits for low-income households.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that people in food-insecure households spend roughly 45% more on medical care annually than those in food-secure households.SNAP participation has been linked to improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.For instance, early access to SNAP among pregnant mothers and in early childhood improved birth outcomes and long-term health as adults.Elderly SNAP participants are less likely than similar non-participants to forgo their full prescribed dosage of medicine due to cost.
The reduction or loss of SNAP benefits can lead to increased food insecurity and poorer health outcomes.A study published in Health Affairs found that the loss of SNAP benefits was associated with food insecurity and poor health in working families with young children.The study indicated that reduced benefits were associated with greater odds of fair or poor caregiver and child health.
As the affordability gap widens and access to essential resources becomes more challenging, the combination of rising costs and reduced support systems underscores the growing inequality faced by working-class families and communities in need.
At a time when college is unaffordable for many, some schools are re-imagining higher education, shifting their curricula from general knowledge to providing free training for specific jobs. Mark Strassmann reports from Merced, California.
It's been a new day in the United Auto Workers since the election of Shawn Fain as president in 2023, with the union carrying out an aggressive organizing and political program that has established the UAW as a major presence in American life. New Labor Forum's Micah Uetricht spoke to Jonah Furman, a top aide to Fain, about the union's strategy, its various wins and losses among nonunion auto manufacturers in the American South, its relationship to the Democratic Party under President Joe Biden, and the impact of a Donald Trump presidency on the union and labor as a whole.
Reinventing Solidarity is a podcast produced by New Labor Forum (NLF), a national labor journal of the Murphy Institute at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. The podcast features scholars, activists, and artists on the front lines of movements for social and economic justice, and asks essential questions about race, class, gender, and the role of organized labor and social justice organizations in creating a radically different world—one with solidarity, equality, and sustainability at its heart. Reinventing Solidary is hosted by NLF Editor-at-Large Micah Uetricht with co-hosts Kafui Attoh, Ruth Milkman, Samir Sonti, and Sean Sweeney.
According to his bio at SHRM, Johny C. Taylor Jr. has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp,
Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm, and Compass Group USA. Most recently,
Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy
Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on
Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump
Administration.
An African American man whose salary at SHRM is greater than $1.3 million a year, Taylor has been a proponent of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace. But as the chief executive of SHRM, he would be an opponent of unions.
Guild,
formerly known as Guild Education, works for Fortune 500 companies like
Walmart, Disney, JP Morgan Chase, and Chipotle to train and retrain
workers as the workforce is systematically reduced through technology. Guild has been in financial decline after being lauded by Forbes and other business media.
If he is selected for the Department of Labor or any other government post, we'll have
to see if Mr. Taylor's work at SHRM, Guild, or his other board seats affects
management decisions, especially if the organization he manages is forced to downsize.
Updated September 3, 2024. UAW 2300 has reached a deal with Cornell University management after the longest strike in the university's history. The deal includes wage increases from 21 percent to 25.5 percent over the four years of the contract, a cost of living adjustment, and the elimination of the two-tier wage system. The agreement also introduces improvements to policies on time off, uniforms, inclement weather, and safety protections. HEI thanks Jimmy Jordan at the Ithaca Voice for his valuable contributions to this story.
This story is not just about Cornell University workers and Cornell University management, but also about Ithaca, New York: a progressive town that faces gentrification and high housing costs for working-class folks who feel the economic squeeze.
Recent Labor Victories Covered By the Higher Education Inquirer
After months of trying to negotiate with Cornell University management, hundreds of UAW Region 9 workers rallied for a fair contract following a 94 percent vote to strike if necessary.
August 18, 2024 (UAW Press Release)
Over 1,000 UAW members
have walked out on strike at Cornell University, as the university has
failed to present a fair package and has not bargained in good faith,
stalling and retaliating against protected union activity by the
workers.
The membership, made up of maintenance and facilities workers, dining
workers, gardeners, custodians, agriculture and horticulture workers
and others, are facing declining real wages even as Cornell’s endowment
has ballooned and tuition revenue has skyrocketed. Over the past four
years, Cornell’s endowment has soared 39% to nearly $10 billion and
tuition has increased 13% – all while workers’ buying power has fallen
5%.
Many of the workers have had to move out of Ithaca to afford housingand must pay expensive parking fees to park on campus. The wage for most
at the university is less than $22 per hour, far lower than what
economists estimate it costs for a family to live in the region. The
compensation for top administrators exceeded $12.4 million in 2022.
“Workers at Cornell are fed up with being exploited and used. The
university would much rather hoard its wealth and power than pay its
workers fairly,” said UAW Local 2300 President Christine Johnson.
“Cornell could have settled this weeks ago. Instead, they’ve scoffed
and laughed at us and broken federal law. We’re done playing around.”
“The workers at Cornell are pushing back against the university’s
arrogance and greed. With a $10 billion endowment, the administration
can more than afford the members’ demands,” said UAW Region 9 Director Daniel Vicente. “Workers in Local 2300 are showing the university that they are willing to do what’s needed to win what they deserve.”
Cornell University workers are the latest UAW members standing up to
billionaire class greed. Thousands of UAW members have won record
contracts in the last year, including auto workers at Daimler Truck, the
Big Three automakers, and Allison Transmission workers in Indianapolis,
IN.
After months of failing to negotiate with workers, and with the new school year closing in, Cornell University administrators asked that a mediator be appointed.
Cornell University workers asked for a 27 percent increase in wages over four years, with a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA). The university offered a 17 percent increase in wages over four years, with no COLA. The university wanted to keep a divisive two-tiered system which gave lower wages to workers who started after 1997. Cornell also wanted employees to continue to pay for parking.
The University appeals to our better natures, to our commitment to
community, to conceal their real ask: to betray these friends and
colleagues, at the moment when they are most in need of our support.
The Cornell leadership of the UAW 2300 chapter, by contrast, has
shown a richer vision of what community needs and what it can be. They
too appeal to our desire to help out, to step up. They have asked for
solidarity, rather than to undermine each other. To not replace
striking labor or the work that they do. To show up on the picket line.
To voice support. To demand that Cornell sign a fair contract. They have
asked us to take the side of those members of our community fighting
for a better life. They have asked us to stand with them.
And in so doing, they are teaching us that real community can only be
forged by a honest appraisal of injustice and unfairness, by a real
understanding of the power that a few employers and institutional
leaders hold over everyone else, and by a real commitment to challenging
it.
According to 14850.com, workers reached a tentative deal with management. 'Over the life of the agreement, members will see an average increase
of 21%-25.4% in hourly wages over the four years, depending on grade
and hire/job rate,' said the UAW on Tuesday night. A sharp increase in
pay to bring wages in line with the actual cost of living in Tompkins
County was one of the union’s key demands."
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