An Important Speech for the Hispanic Community

This week, the President went to the National Council of La Raza's annual conference luncheon in Washington, DC. There he discussed how the success of the Latino community is intrinsically tied to the success of our country, telling an audience of more than 2,000 that "the American family is only as strong as the Latino community." He highlighted the many promises we've kept; victories we have won working together in order to make sure America remains a place where opportunity is open to all who work for it. As the President outlined:

"We've cut taxes for middle class workers, small businesses, and low-income families. We’ve won credit card reform and financial reform, protections for consumers and folks who use payday lenders or send remittances home from being exploited or ripped off. We’ve worked to secure health care for 4 million children, including the children of legal immigrants, and we are implementing health reform for all who have been abused by insurance companies, and all who fear going broke if they get sick – big victories for a Latino community that suffers from lack of health insurance more than any other.

The President also addressed the "unfinished business" we still have before us. The President noted:

We know the recent recession has hit Latino families especially hard. We must continue our work on job creation to make sure everyone who wants a job can find one; to make sure paychecks actually cover the bills; to make sure families don’t have to choose between buying groceries and buying medicine; between sending their kids to college and being able to retire. My number one priority, every day, is to figure out how we can get businesses to hire and create jobs with decent wages. And in the short-term, there are some things we should do right away. I want to extend the tax relief we put in place for middle-class families, so that folks have more money in their paychecks. I want to cut red tape that keeps entrepreneurs from turning new ideas into thriving businesses. I want to sign trade deals so our businesses can sell more goods made in America to the rest of the world. And the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing bubble burst – I want to put them back to work building our roads and bridges and airports. There is work to be done. There are workers ready to do it. Bipartisan proposals for all of this would already be law if Congress would just send them to my desk. And I’d appreciate it if you’d all help me convince them to do it. Let’s get it done.

A Better Understanding of Employee Benefits for an Increasingly Diverse American Workforce

Ed. Note: Cross-posted from (Work in Progerss)

Last year, I wrote in “Sometimes, It Takes An Interpretation” that by making a clarification to the Family and Medical Leave Act, originally passed in 1993, we are taking into better consideration the changing nature of America’s households and workers.  Our clarification then means that today, a same-sex partner who shares in parenting, or an aunt who steps in for a mother called to active military duty, can take unpaid leave to ensure the care for a child at home.   

Today, we take another great step in better understanding the resources and benefits available to America’s workforce. 

For the first time, in order to better understand the benefits available to an increasingly diverse American workforce, this year’s National Compensation Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics includes information on domestic partner benefits, providing a better, fuller picture of employee benefits in workplaces across our nation.

The report shows that while 71% of all workers in private industry have access to health care plans, only about 1 in 4 such workers have access to a health care plan they can use to cover their same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partner. 

High wage earners and union workers are significantly more likely to have access to benefits for a domestic partner, while only a small percentage of low wage-earners, non-union workers and part-time workers have access to these benefits.

Empowering Small Business

“The dairy business is getting tougher and tougher over the years,” Grant Kohler said, but he still looks forward to opening his small, family-run business, Heber Valley Artisan Cheese.  Despite the tough economic conditions, Grant thinks his business, which will have a new creamery and an online operation that is rare in the dairy industry, has tremendous potential.

Heber Valley Artisan Cheese is not a typical small business.  With more than 90 years of history and deep immigrant roots that spanned four generations and counting, its story epitomizes the American dream.  When Albert Kohler, Grant’s grandfather, bought the Canyon View Farm in 1929, he had no idea whether his farm would survive the challenges of the Great Depression.  What he did have was a tough work ethnic, an entrepreneurial spirit and the cheese making skills that he inherited from his father, who emigrated from Switzerland. 

The Kohler family in the mountains of Heber Valley, home to Heber Valley Artisan Cheese. (Photo by Grant Kohler). (by Grant Kohler)