Prior to the Tuesday, Jan. 19 Buncombe County Commissioners’ retreat, staff in various departments sat down and took a good look at the county’s priorities, coming up with ideas and alternatives of how to accomplish these goals in 2016 (and beyond).
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Prior to the Tuesday, Jan. 19 Buncombe County Commissioners’ retreat, staff in various departments sat down and took a good look at the county’s priorities, coming up with ideas and alternatives of how to accomplish these goals in 2016 (and beyond).
The agenda for the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ Tuesday, Jan. 19 retreat reads like a year in review: affordable housing, zoning actions, greenway projects, waste reduction and encouraging employers to pay a living wage.
Asheville City Council passed the 2015-2016 fiscal year budget yesterday that increases property taxes and fees for municipal services. The budget also gives raises to city employees. Council voted 6-1 to approve the budget, with Council member Chris Pelly voting against.
From the Get It! Guide: While the national attention and popularity of Asheville’s restaurants has meant economic prosperity for some, the Asheville Sustainble Restaurant Workers say it often comes at the cost of inequality, low pay and unfair working conditions for the approximately 11,600 restaurant employees in the city.
On Monday, March 9, The News & Observer posted a story on Durham’s new living wage certification program — titled the Durham Living Wage Project, citing Asheville’s Just Economics as its model.
From the Get It! Guide: How do we define a successful business? According to Just Economics, it’s about more than dollars and cents.
From the Get It! Guide: The Asheville Grown Business Alliance takes 2015 by storm with a focus on diversifying, learning and courageously leveraging our community’s assets to create radical resilience and prosperity for everyone.
While most Ashevilleans are aware of their city’s well-earned title of Beer City USA, Asheville is quietly gaining national attention for its vibrant Living Wage Certification program
This combo meal of two different local stories — such as this and this — is a better value than purchasing two separate cartoons.
Discussion about the fate of the city of Asheville’s water system and the impact of a flurry of legislation coming out of the general assembly in Raleigh is on the agenda for tonight’s Asheville City Council meeting. Council will also consider a living wage requirement for some city contractors. Follow live Twitter coverage here.
It is fitting that the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution that values workers during a week that began with a holiday honoring labor. As part of the Sept. 4 consent agenda, the the commissioners passed a living-wage resolution ensuring that their regular employees are making a living wage. A living wage is […]
Asheville City Council passed new restrictions on digital billboards 6-0 tonight, and also endorsed prohibiting new ones entirely, though the city’s Planning and Zoning Committee will have to craft the terms a of such a ban.
Tonight, Asheville City Council will decide on new rules that would adjust the standards for digital billboards while prohibiting them from certain corridors.
I was deeply disappointed to read Jake Frankel's Aug. 24 Xpress article “Working It: Living Wages are Good for Business” which states “living wage — currently $11.35 per hour without health insurance or $9.85 per hour with it.” This statement ignores the fine print in Just Economics' Living Wage Certification Program, which can be found […]
Just Economics is proud to inform your reader that we closely reviewed the criteria with which we certify a business at great length, with a special focus on “offsets” earlier this year. We eliminated any offsets not related to the basic needs of a single individual. We do, however, recognize that if an employer offers […]
Living wages are good for business
I commend the Asheville City Council members who voted to phase in an extension of the living-wage ordinance to include contract workers. In a society dominated by big business, work conditions and wages are declining almost as quickly as the income gap is growing. Major systemic changes will have to occur before anything close to […]
Just Economics has been campaigning for an increase in minimum wage. Just Ecomics calls this increase a living wage. They have successfully pushed their policy into local law. Now contractors for our city must also pay their employees a living wage of $11.35 an hour (without benefits). The policy advocacy on their website states, “It […]
I offer this in response to Josh Yazell's Jan. 5 letter, “Buchi Story More Vendetta than Journalism,” a response to David Forbes' article “Bottled in Bond” [Dec. 22 Xpress]. As Forbes responded to Yazell, claims presented to them by me were investigated and documented. In interviews with Xpress, the Asheville Citizen-Times and [the radio program] […]
I currently work at Buchi and have never felt more at ease in a working relationship between a supervisor and myself than I do with Jeannine Buscher and Sarah Schomber, the owners of Buchi. I have always had complete confidence in voicing any concerns I have to them without fear of losing my job. They […]
The recent article on the firing at Buchi Kombucha should serve as a reminder that “local” business doesn’t inherently mean fair business ["Bottled in Bond," Dec. 22 Xpress]. Often the economic re-localization movement presents “local” as a panacea for a wide variety of economic and social woes while ignoring the systemic pressures brought to bear […]