Every week, Alliance for a Better Minnesota will highlight the important work being done in the progressive community. Focusing on issues that impact Minnesotans’ lives, this important work helps Minnesota continue moving forward.

“Bad Boss Tax”: Minnesota is looking to pass legislation coined the Bad Boss Tax that would require corporations to disclose how many of its employees are on federal or state government assistance, and then be charged a fine based on the subsidies the corporations receive by shorting their workers’ pay while profiting off of their poverty wages. This legislation is part of a greater national effort to slow the income gap between Americans.

Ellison Union Push: Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison plans to introduce a bill later this month to turn unionization into a legally protected civil right. The legislation would make it easier for workers to take legal action against their employers that try to prevent employees from organizing. The proposal would make it illegal for an employer to fire an employee on the basis of seeking union membership.

Twin Cities Least Income Segregated: MPR published a piece this week about income segregation, or the phenomenon where poor live amongst poor and rich live amongst rich, thus making economic mobility out of poverty more difficult. The article reported that the Twin Cities metro area is one of the least income segregated large metro areas in the country.

Obama Increases Education Initiative For Black And Latino Boys: Earlier this week, President Barack Obama announced that he plans to increase the initiative to improve the educational futures of African-American and Latino boys. Sixty of the nation’s largest school districts are joining the program, which is called My Brother’s Keeper. Plans for improvement in the program begin in preschool and extend through high school graduation.