By Christian Collins

Authoritarian war machines are fueled through the sacrifice of young adults in service of empire. Presently, that fuel is refined through policymakers purposefully destroying the national education system and economy. Last year’s widespread cuts to Medicaid and SNAP leave states responsible for covering $450 billion in lost federal benefits over the next ten years, which will slow down and potentially reverse recent expansion of state-level education funding across the country. Restricted state-level education funding directly reduces the ability of students with lower incomes to enroll in and complete postsecondary educational opportunities, which in turn limits their access to good jobs.  

The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) actions only exacerbates these funding issues with a rash of policies and decisions, including their ongoing rulemaking to reduce available financial aid for career fields with higher rates of enrollment from women and students of color; leaving large portions of the country’s 43 million student loan borrowers in limbo by laying off roughly half of the Federal Student Aid Office workforce; illegally moving student loan collection responsibilities to the Treasury Department to account for Secretary McMahon’s failures in managing the national student debt portfolio; and disruptions of existing federal education and workforce training programs via their illegal relocation from ED to the Department of Labor. These are all coordinated actions to cut vital economic lifelines and funnel people into military service. 

This deliberate destruction of federal public services is concerning for both its impact on the national economy and its specific impact on men, the primary target for increased military enlistment. Though women are eligible to enlist, and their educational access is being threatened, the administration has specifically focused on increasing enlistment for men and actively discouraging enlistment from marginalized groups like transgender people. Over the last five months, adult men across all measured racial demographics have lost employment at a higher rate than the overall workforce. As unemployment rates are improving, this means more men are dropping out of the labor force altogether. 

Note: data for Hispanic or Latino men is taken from this link. 

A national economy careening toward recession, potential global food insecurity, the intentional removal of affordable educational and training opportunities, and the loss of public benefits at the federal level forces young men to choose between the morality of participating in an illegal war or socioeconomic survival for themselves and their families.  

However, male veterans’ increased access to higher education through the GI Bill and additional benefits like widespread tax exemptions have not protected their employment levels relative to nonveteran men. Along with not being immune from the administration’s cuts to public benefits, these are important factors to communicate to young men as they weigh participating in international war crimes as a socioeconomic lifeline. 

Policymakers shoulder the blame for this current system, but institutions have also made affordability pathways harder to navigate for students and families with lower incomes. For example, New America recently published research on how institutions have been working with enrollment management consultants to free up financial aid resources for wealthier students by pushing other families into taking Parent PLUS loans. These loans can go well beyond the $7,500 federal loan limit for dependent students, can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, and are subject to wage garnishment amongst other governmental debt collection methods. Colleges and universities are also using online education as a fundraising tool rather than a quality opportunity for an adaptable and less expensive on-ramp for students; treating housing as a profit-driven asset instead of a basic need; using consulting firms to identify programs to cut to hide other areas of financial mismanagement; and outsourcing the work of professors to artificial intelligence companies while closing departments and halting supportive services programs for students. These are factors for why public pushback from institutions against policymaker attacks is so rare, because some institutions have been willful participants. 

The overall employment levels for young men regardless of race have remained relatively stable since December 2025 but with high variance between age groups, which means that policymakers should be especially concerned about young men entering adulthood. This data is also irrespective of the fact that less than 30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds hold quality jobs that offer fair pay, growth opportunities, and are at safe and respectful workplaces, so job gains for other age groups do not excuse a lack of urgency in offsetting the deliberate cratering of the economy and postsecondary education. 

State governments and institutions have a variety of policy tools at their disposal to meet the public’s demand for increased financial investments in postsecondary education and reduced financial barriers to educational opportunities. States that act would also disrupt the Trump Administration’s efforts to sacrifice young men in an unnecessary conflict. One top priority should be to remove the tuition barrier, which nearly 1,000 institutions across the country have already done. Additional policy tools include:  

1. Implementing fiscal strategies like Massachusetts’ DRIVE Initiative to offset federal divestment from public postsecondary education. 

1. Updating existing state-level financial aid programs to better meet current and future needs of students, including transitioning from “last-dollar” to “first-dollar” programs.  

1. Diverting public resources from exploitative for-profit institutions and substandard online schools to institutions that have proven results in providing upward socioeconomic mobility to students with lower-income or middle-income backgrounds.  

1. Continued expansion of dual enrollment opportunities to help students accumulate credits earlier and at a lower cost.  

Postsecondary education is a pillar of American democracy, not a blunt tool to foster authoritarianism. Trump’s policy agenda has already been an abhorrent moral failure committed by policymakers and higher education leaders, a fatal domestic failure with the adaptation of these tactics for ICE recruitment, and now a tool fueling a global conflict and the destruction in Iran.  

The Trump Administration is consciously creating a K-shaped war economy wealthy benefactors profit off the suffering of the lower and middle classes. This is all to support the president’s impulsive bombing of other nations, and the Trump Administration has even resorted to mocking  those who have concerns about these actions. State policymakers cannot make the same mistakes as their federal counterparts. They cannot abandon the responsibilities of democratic leadership. 

By Lulit Shewan

May Day has always been grounded in a simple demand: workers should be able to go to work and return home safely. That demand carries particular weight this year. The scale of harm workers face remains high, and the conditions shaping that harm are shifting in ways that increase exposure and limit the systems meant to prevent it.

Risk is structured and disproportionate across the labor market. Latino workers experience the highest rates of fatal occupational injury, and Black workers also face elevated risks. Immigrant workers are overrepresented in industries with dangerous conditions, including construction, agriculture, warehousing, and manufacturing. Many workers in these sectors face barriers to reporting unsafe conditions, including language access, fear of retaliation, and immigration-related concerns. These factors shape who is most exposed to hazardous conditions and who is least protected when those conditions become dangerous.

Workplace harm is not limited to injuries or fatalities. Gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) are deeply embedded across low-wage and precarious work, shaping daily conditions of safety, dignity, and economic security. This includes sectors such as hospitality, domestic work, agriculture, and warehousing. Women—particularly Black women, immigrant women, and women in temporary roles—face heightened exposure to harassment, assault, and coercion on the job. Federal workplace safety frameworks provide limited proactive protections against these forms of harm. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not offer a comprehensive standard that addresses GBVH as a workplace safety issue, and enforcement mechanisms remain limited. These gaps leave workers without consistent tools for prevention or accountability.

The most recent AFL-CIO Death on the Job report documents the scale of loss. In 2024, 5,070 workers were killed in traumatic incidents on the job, and an estimated 135,000 more died from occupational diseases. This amounts to more than 380 deaths each day tied to workplace conditions. These figures align with patterns documented in prior years. Fatalities remain concentrated in construction, transportation, warehousing, agriculture, and manufacturing. The leading causes of death continue to include falls, motion strain, equipment-related injuries, and exposure to hazardous substances.

Safety standards exist for many of the most common hazards, particularly in construction and manufacturing, but failures in enforcement, inadequate training, production pressures, and gaps in accountability allow these risks to persist. These failures are tied to how safety protections are implemented and enforced across workplaces.

Recent workplace tragedies reflect these patterns. In April 2026, a worker at an Amazon fulfillment center in Troutdale, Oregon, collapsed and died inside the facility. Reports indicated that work continued in surrounding areas during the emergency response. In October 2025, an explosion at an explosives manufacturing plant in Tennessee killed 16 workers and revealed dozens of safety violations. Construction sites continue to see fatal trench collapses and falls, even with established federal standards designed to prevent them. These incidents reflect conditions in which known hazards remain present and safeguards are inconsistently applied. A large share of these deaths are widely understood to be preventable, even if there is no single comprehensive estimate that captures the exact proportion. The AFL-CIO has consistently pointed to enforcement gaps and employer noncompliance as central drivers of workplace fatalities, noting that many incidents occur in violation of existing standards. OSHA investigations routinely identify preventable hazards after fatal events, particularly in blue collar industries.

Policy decisions made over the past year are shaping how these risks are managed. OSHA’s recent revised Heat National Emphasis Program is reflective of this, narrowing the list of industries prioritized for heat-related inspections. This change comes as heat exposure intensifies across sectors where workers spend extended periods outdoors or in high-temperature environments, including those who work in agriculture, construction, delivery, or warehouses. These workers all face prolonged exposure to high temperatures, often without guaranteed access to water or shade. Federal data shows that heat-related fatalities are often undercounted or misclassified. A narrower enforcement scope reduces the likelihood that unsafe heat conditions will be identified during inspections.

Cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) affect the federal government’s ability to track workplace hazards and develop updated safety recommendations. NIOSH plays a central role in identifying emerging risks, including heat exposure, chemical hazards, and evolving workplace technologies. Staffing and funding reductions affect data collection, field investigations, and the development of evidence-based guidance that informs OSHA standards.

Enforcement capacity continues to shape how safety protections function in practice. OSHA is responsible for overseeing millions of workplaces with a limited number of inspectors; indeed, inspection rates have not kept pace with the growth and complexity of industries such as warehousing and logistics. These sectors include large facilities employing hundreds or thousands of workers under tightly managed production systems. The number of federal OSHA inspectors dropped from 900 in 2022 to 853 in 2023, while the number of workers and workplaces under OSHA’s jurisdiction continues to grow. Current staffing remains below historical levels relative to the size of the workforce OSHA is tasked with protecting.

Employer practices play a defining role in this context. Production targets, algorithmic management systems, and staffing decisions influence how safety measures are applied. In warehouse settings, workers are often expected to maintain continuous output, which affects whether work is paused during emergencies and whether workers feel able to report unsafe conditions. In construction, subcontracting structures distribute responsibility across multiple entities, which complicates enforcement. In manufacturing, pressure to maintain production intersects with hazardous materials and machinery.

The cumulative effect is a workplace safety system with limited capacity to prevent harm under current conditions. Oversight is narrowing, research capacity is constrained, and enforcement remains limited relative to the scale of workplaces. Forms of harm that fall outside traditional regulatory frameworks, including GBVH, continue without consistent intervention.

Addressing these conditions requires sustained federal action. Expanding OSHA funding would increase inspection capacity and strengthen enforcement of existing standards. Reinvesting in NIOSH would support the research infrastructure needed to identify emerging hazards and inform updated protections. Establishing a comprehensive federal heat standard would provide consistent safeguards across industries where exposure is widespread. Legislative action can clarify accountability within subcontracting structures and strengthen protections for workers who report unsafe conditions. Addressing GBVH at work requires integrating it into workplace safety frameworks through enforceable standards and proactive prevention measures.

May Day highlights the relationship between worker safety and power. Workplace conditions are shaped by policy choices, enforcement priorities, and the distribution of control within workplaces. Current policy directions influence how hazards are identified, protections are applied, and accountability is enforced. Worker deaths and injuries continue to follow patterns that have been documented over time. The systems designed to address those patterns are being shaped in ways that affect how widely harm continues.

>> Read CLASP Comment here

Lorena Roque published an op-ed in The Progressive about the need to treat gender-based violence and harassment as a workplace safety issue. Tribune News also published the commentary, which was picked up by many publications across the country, including in California, Texas, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Washington State, and Georgia.

>>Read the op-ed in The Progressive 

This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).  

Washington, D.C., April 22, 2026 – Today, Virginia made history as the first Southern state to pass and codify into law comprehensive paid family and medical leave for its workers.  

The product of years of advocacy by the Virginia Paid Family and Medical Leave Coalition, this law will ensure that nearly all Virginia workers have access to vital paid time off to care for themselves or a loved one. With this program, workers in the Commonwealth will retain an estimated $1.3 billion in wages each year instead of losing critical income in times of need. These essential funds are key for workers and families, helping them afford their basic needs and expenses as prices continue to rise.   

Through our role facilitating the Paid Leave Administrators’ Network, CLASP has seen firsthand how the collaborative spirit of state government administrators positively impacts working families across the country. The network demonstrated a strong willingness to share lessons learned in launching and implementing prior state paid leave programs with Virginia’s incoming administrators. Our experience in Virginia shows what a government that prioritizes care can look like: one that is collaborative, generous, and forward-thinking. 

By Diane Harris

This report explores the difficult choices Southern workers often face when serious illness, caregiving, childbirth, or family loss occur. Based on interviews with 10 workers, “Inaccessible and Costly” finds that limited access to paid family and medical leave means too many workers fear retaliation, return to work too soon, lose wages, fall into debt, or are pushed out of jobs altogether.

The report argues that these harms deepen poverty and inequity, especially for women of color, and calls for worker-centered paid leave policies with job protection, anti-retaliation measures, strong wage replacement, inclusive family definitions, paid sick days, and bereavement leave.

Since this report’s publication, Southern states have made progress on paid family and medical leave. In March 2026, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a comprehensive paid family and medical leave policy and Tennessee’s legislature expanded the state’s public sector paid parental leave policy. “Inaccessible and Costly” is in the process of being updated to recognize these historic wins.  

To learn more about the recent effort in Virginia, please visit this CLASP resource. To learn more about the bill passage in Tennessee, please refer to A Better Balance’s press statement. 

On April 10, 2026, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) submitted the following responses to the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s request for information on the changing rules of governance in college sports and potential pathways for Congressional intervention. Our responses outline the challenges students currently face in a lopsided labor market where they lack federal labor protections, why attempting to offset federal student aid restrictions based on potential name, image, and likeness earnings is flawed and specifically disadvantages Black male students, and why the ability to collectively bargain must be linked with employment status instead of attempting to segregate those rights, amongst other responses.

>> Download file

By Nat Baldino

With its recent passage of a statewide paid family and medical leave (PFML) program, Virginia has joined 14 other states and Washington, D.C., in offering this vital benefit. As the first PFML program in the South, Virginia’s achievement is a historic win for working families. Virginia now tackles the difficult task of implementing the program. Standing up a paid leave program requires, among other steps, a rulemaking process to interpret and administer the new law; engagement with stakeholders; outreach and education to workers, employers, medical providers, and others; staffing the program; and building technological and data infrastructure that aligns with existing state laws, regulations, and infrastructure. Thankfully, Virginia does not have to do this alone.

Through CLASP’s role facilitating our Paid Leave Administrators’ Network, we have had the privilege of witnessing the ways in which incoming state program administrators learn from those who have come before them. The final sprint to the passage of Virginia’s law was an incredible demonstration of collaboration and a true testament to the power of good government to work together to create strong, equitable programs. Among the highlights we witnessed:

A Spirit of Giving

What was most impressive to witness was the administrators’ sheer willingness to show up to help Virginia. We received a request from the incoming administrators of Virginia’s program to be connected with current state PFML administrators, and arranged a rapid response call. At least one administrator from each state joined the call. There were administrators who hopped on in between meetings and other commitments just to show their support; most administrators had read the bill text and gave feedback on specific aspects of the incoming program. And everyone shared valuable and helpful insights from the lessons they had learned. Some administrators spent additional one-on-one time with the Virginia team to provide more in-depth support, demonstrating their dedication to making all paid leave programs as strong as possible.

Good Government is a Feedback Loop

This spirit of generosity creates a feedback loop that continually improves all paid leave programs. During the first few years of a program’s rollout, administrators will often discover changes that need to be made, but that require going back and altering the original legislation. For example, California’s original bill text used a definition of “family member” that excluded claimants whose loved ones were not blood relatives or recognized by current legal definitions but whom are absolutely understood as legal family. Recognizing the need to include chosen family and non-traditional family structures, California recently passed SB 590, which expands the definition of “family member” to include chosen and extended family. Administrators are constantly improving their programs based on what they learn as they strive to implement these programs with the highest standards of equity. By sharing these lessons, the administrators of current programs can help incoming states avoid the lengthy legislative and administrative processes required to make program changes.

It’s a Culture Shift, Not Just a New Program.

One administrator had an important message for Virginia when considering how important early education and outreach is: “It’s not just a new program, it’s a culture shift.” Especially as Virginia breaks new ground in the South, this is an opportunity to recognize paid leave as both a government program that supports workers and their families and an opportunity to reframe how we value care.

Administrators have proven themselves to be not just stewards of their programs, but the vanguard of this cultural shift. Our experience in Virginia shows that paid leave has the potential to create its own shift, showing what a government that prioritizes care can look like: one that is collaborative, generous, and forward-thinking.

This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). 

Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026–The Trump Administration’s budget proposal predictably cuts support for children, families, and workers, at a time when families are already struggling to make ends meet. It’s the same tired story from this administration, asserting that within the proposed $8 trillion budget, our country must cut funding for the programs that help families get by so they can increase defense funding and underwrite their immigration enforcement that rips families and communities apart. 

CLASP documented the many ways the Trump Administration went out of its way to hurt families and communities in 2025, and this budget is another step in that direction. It would increase the number of people in poverty even further, on top of all of the other policies the administration has signed into law, like denying millions of people their health coverage and food assistance through H.R.1.  

The Trump Administration has proposed even more drastic cuts to vital programs that workers rely on for workforce development and access to jobs that pay living wages. On top of that, rising inflation and increased strain on state budgets from H.R. 1 mean that cuts and level funding to programs like Head Start, SNAP, and public health programs, which support mental and maternal and child health, along with grants that support child care and housing would further reduce access to essential services. All of this contributes to the administration’s attacks on affordability and the social safety net.

We know what we need to invest in to support families – health care, food assistance, housing, child care, worker development programs, education. But instead, this budget slashes funding to programs that support families while continuing to inflate the budget of immigration enforcement agents who are separating families and traumatizing communities. 

The President’s budget is unacceptable. Congress should reject it and work to pass a budget that actually reflects the needs of our communities. 

>>Download 2025 Impact Report