MNA NewsScan, May 1, 2013: May Day!

LABOR UPDATES

CEO Pay Gap Up 1000% Since 1950    Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950.

Worldwide May Day Rallies Thousands of low-paid workers are rallying in the streets on May Day to demand better pay and improved working conditions a week after a Bangladesh building collapse that was a grim reminder of how lax safety regulations make work a danger in poor countries.

Health Care Dominates Highest Paying Jobs (no surprise:  nurses excluded) in America   Anesthesiologists top the list with average annual pay of $232,830 as of 2012, the latest year for which official figures are available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

House Panel OKs Minimum Wage Hike    “Where the hell are the workers in this particular argument?” Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul, asked before the measure passed. “There used to be a compact: eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of family. … It is time America, and Minnesota, and this world, get back to that particular attitude.”

Solidarity Forever!  Listen to the worker’s anthem by Pete Seeger

HEALTH CARE

Park Nicollet, HealthPartners to Build Clinic in Plymouth   The site of a former driving range in western Plymouth soon will be home to a 60,000-square-foot medical and dental clinic jointly run by Park Nicollet and HealthPartners.