This Week’s Essential StateImpact

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We've rounded-up the top five posts this week that caught your eye and captured your clicks

In a lot of ways, Friday afternoon is the perfect time for catching-up.  It’s too early to clock out, but too late to start a big new project.  And at StateImpact, we tend to think it’s also a great time to catch you up on New Hampshire’s business and economy news.  Here’s your weekly roundup of the top five StateImact posts you might’ve missed:

1. Seven Takeaways From The Carsey Institute’s Report On Raising Wages For Home Care Workers: This post was by far the most popular this week.  In it, we follow up on a previous post showing which states do and don’t offer minimum wage and overtime to home care workers (#3).  The Obama Administration is now pushing to include these workers under federal wage and overtime laws.  It’s proved to be a controversial move.  A researcher at the Carsey Institute looked at the implications of such a change, and we break down her report.
2. Q&A: Why NH Factories Are Struggling To Find Workers (And What The Community College System Is Doing About It): Our discussion with new Community Colleges System Chancellor (and economist) Ross Gittell covered everything from the holes in the advanced manufacturing workforce to the shortage of Gen Y factory workers.
3. The States With The Best And Worst Wage Laws For Home Health Workers: Our all-time most popular post made a comeback this week thanks to our Seven Takeaways on the Carsey Institute’s report.  You can see, at a glance, how minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers vary across the country.
4. Why One Reporter Says There’s No “Skills Gap” In Manufacturing, After All: In the midst of our reporting on the state of fabrication–and the factory workforce–in New Hampshire, we stumbled on a great piece from the Huffington Post which seems to turn the dominant national narrative on its head.  We break this alternative perspective down into a few key highlights.
5. Why Home Care Workers Aren’t Guaranteed Minimum Wage: Our top post this week generated a key question from some readers: Why aren’t home care workers covered under the federal minimum wage law?  Here’s the quick explainer, complete with historical context.