The Rhode Island State Senate passed legislation that would grant 80% of the state's workers access to paid family leave, allowing them to take paid time off for a new child or to care for family members. The House now must take up the bill before it adjourns in the next few days. If it passes, Rhode Island would become the third state, after California and New Jersey, to offer such a plan.

As Congress left Friday for a weeklong vacation for the Independence Day holiday, a July 1 deadline passed without congressional action on student loan interest rates. New subsidized federal Stafford loans issued after that date will incur a new rate of 6.8%, up from the current 3.4% students pay. Time still exists to fix the rate increase, however, as most students don't sign their loan paperwork until early August. Without legislation to reverse the increase, some 7 million students will see rates on their subsidized loans double at a time when student loan debt has reached more than $1 trillion and more and more economists are saying the massive student loan debt problem is becoming a drag on the economy.

Progressive radio host Rick Smith, a member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and his family, producer Brett Banditelli and writer Pat LaMarche, recently embarked on a 7,800-mile cross-country trip to rediscover labor history. The Pennsylvania resident launched the trip on June 6 at the Talkers New York Conference as a way to counterbalance the domination of radio by conservative anti-labor talk radio hosts.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in the Shelby County v. Holder case striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), several states immediately took steps to increase voter suppression efforts. The court ruled unconstitutional the formula used to determine which states and locales needed to get preclearance from the Department of Justice before making changes in voting process. In recent years, Republicans have ramped up efforts to limit the right to vote, particularly through the use of voter identification laws that require eligible voters to purchase state-issued IDs before they can cast their ballots.

While the focus in the past week has been on Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage, voting rights and affirmative action, two other rulings released this week have made it easier for employees to be harassed in the workplace and reduced the legal recourse those workers have to end harassment. In two separate 5–4 rulings, in which the conservative justices sided against workers, the court made it harder to take recourse against a supervisor who is harassing a worker, and made it easier for bosses to punish workers who complain about discrimination.

This Saturday, June 29, Students Against Sweatshops will lead a coalition of groups and individuals in an international day of action to pressure Walmart and Gap to stop the use of unsafe factories that have killed more than 1,800 workers in Bangladesh since 2005. To date, the two corporate giants have refused to sign on to an Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh that would go a long way toward making workers in Bangladesh safer. The accord would require independent inspections by trained fire safety experts, mandatory repairs and a central role for workers and unions.

On Thursday morning, the New York City Council overrode a veto by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) to pass a new paid sick days requirement for businesses with more than 15 employees. Employees at those businesses will earn five paid sick days each year. The law will be implemented in 2014 and initially it will apply to companies with 20 or more employees; after a year and a half it will apply to businesses with 15 or more workers. Smaller businesses will be required to provide their employees with five unpaid sick days. The victory for both workers and consumers makes New York the largest city with a paid sick days requirement.

The Obama administration announced Thursday it is suspending trade privileges for Bangladesh because of that country's poor record of safety and protection of workers' rights in the garment industry. After a recent building collapse killed more than 1,100 workers and a fire in a separate factory led to another 112 deaths, the administration was under pressure to take action. The suspension means Bangladesh no longer will be able to avoid paying duties on more than 5,000 products the country exports to the United States.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in a 5–4 ruling, a big step toward equality for LGBT families.  But now that part of the discriminatory law has been ruled unconstitutional, what does it mean for same-sex couples? Lambda Legal has a thorough guide to the legal ramifications of the ruling.

Two new studies succinctly lay out the need for and the broad economic benefits of raising the federal minimum wage.

The Kids Count Data Book finds that the number of children living in poverty jumped by 3 million from 2005 to 2011—years marked by stagnant wages—and now 23% of the nation’s children live in poverty.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United shows that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as legislation in Congress would do, would boost more than half of the working poor in the United States out of poverty.