Industry groups
Commentary
Cry Wolf Quotes
Unfortunately, living wage laws may have an unintended consequence of causing low-wage workers to be replaced by higher skilled, more educated workers. Living wage ordinances hit hardest at new entrants to the labor force.
This is why NJBIA and its member companies have been fighting passage of a paid family leave mandate in the Legislature. Despite its good intentions, the mandate would greatly impair the ability of employers to operate their businesses and meet their customers' needs. NJBIA members have sent 50,000 messages to legislators and the governor opposing it. Yet, state policymakers seem to be oblivious. We are teetering on the edge of recession, we are losing jobs, and they want to impose a huge new mandate that has been adopted by only one other state, California...What New Jersey needs now, more than ever, is to have its government leadership focus fiercely on what can be done to strengthen the state's business climate and create new jobs. Businesses are tired of elected officials who say they support a growing economy and small business, only to take actions that contradict their words, like voting for paid family leave.
In reviewing the proposed form mandated by S.51, it appears that much of the information required would not be useable….[and] The costs to small businesses of measuring such emissions would be staggering.
If there is no danger of the airborne concentrations exceeding those provided in Section (a) of the standard, we feel that there should be no need to alarm employees with inflammatory arid suggestive signs. Industry would be opened up to hazard pay and workman’s compensation claims, even though no special care or protection is required in the workplace.
Evidence
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Cranes & Derricks: The Prolonged Creation of a Key Public Safety Rule
This report recounts the creation of an important rule that was badly needed to protect workers—and, sometimes, passersby—from the dangers posed by cranes at construction sites.
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Regulations at Work: Five Rules that Save Workers’ Lives and Protect their Health
This paper looks at five worker-safety regulations that were tremendously successful in reducing employee injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
Backgrounders & Briefs
The Short-Handled Hoe Hearings: 1973- 1975
In 1972, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) petitioned the Industrial Safety Board of California’s Division of Industrial Safety to prohibit the use of the 12-inch short-handled hoe. The hearing transcipts are online here.

