Last August, Newsday reported that on Long Island “the median compensation for the 10 top-paid executives rose 37% last year to $10.9 million,” according to a Newsday analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. “By comparison, the median pay for all Long Island workers increased 4.2% to $59,418, just above the 3.8% inflation rate for the metropolitan area last year.” In other words, after accounting for inflation, Long Island workers’ wages are flatlining while the fortunes of executives are rapidly growing.  

From Newsday.com

Elected officials do victory laps over numbers that show solid economic growth, and news networks unquestionably parrot their statements. But a closer look at wealth and income distribution tells a different story: much of that growth is concentrated among a small group of already wealthy individuals. Meanwhile, workers are more productive than ever, yet face increasing economic insecurity as austerity measures strip what little social support they have in order to fund tax breaks for their bosses.

It’s almost like there are two entirely different realities depending on who you listen to. LIJWJ unequivocally listens to workers when it comes to economic and societal health. When workers’ are ignored because of their identities, backgrounds, economic circumstances, or simply because they are demanding dignity on the job, we stand with them and reject the fiction of greedy bosses.

We demonstrate this by responding to worker calls to action with seriousness and dedication. Like late last year when Starbucks workers launched a historic nationwide strike campaign. The baristas knew a prolonged strike would be an extremely challenging effort and community mutual aid would be essential to keep it going. Building on years of collaboration, LIJWJ and Starbucks Workers United worked together to establish a network of community and faith supporters to provide food, clothing, and other essentials to workers during the strike.

Pavinder, strike captain at the Garden City cafe, shared this:

“As a pro-union Starbucks worker on Long Island, LIJWJ has been the most supportive organization to me outside of Starbucks Workers United. When we need help on picket lines, LIJWJ is there. When it was clear that workers were being fired for daring to be Black and pro union, LIJWJ and their network made it clear that that is not something Long Islanders will stand for. I really am so grateful for everything they’ve helped us with. I personally feel that I would not have been able to stay with this campaign as long as I have without the love and support LIJWJ.”

We’re 75% towards our goal, which is a great time to make your donation to the 2026 Spring Match! Your contribution helps us respond when workers take courageous action. Whether that means supporting strike efforts, coordinating community mutual aid, or strengthening the relationships that sustain long-term organizing. We’re getting close to our goal, and YOU can help put us over the finish line! Head to our Givebutter page now and become a one time or sustaining LIJWJ supporter!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to precisely quantify how much of workers’ wages are stolen each year. But estimates go upwards of $3 BILLION just in New York State alone. This means that each second you spend reading this, $95 is stolen from New York workers. Each minute is about $5,700, and $342,000 every hour!

Donate to our spring match today so that we can continue to bring attention to the rampant wage theft happening to working people!

Mainstream politics in 2026 revolves largely around fearmongering about crime and fraud. It is true that crime and fraud are huge problems in the US, but not in the way mainstream narratives present. The truth is that the worst criminals and fraudsters wear suits and sit in boardrooms. They get paid big dollars to figure out how to wring out every last possible penny from working people, and they are more than willing to go beyond what is legal to do it.

LIJWJ fights against this by rallying community attention around wage theft, most recently on Long Island school construction projects. At a Workers’ Rights Board hearing just a few weeks ago, a board of commissioners assembled by LIJWJ received testimony from workers and union organizers about the rampant abuse and misuse of taxpayer funds building and maintaining our local schools. Keep an eye out because we’ll be releasing a report on this issue later this month!

We also fight other forms of extraction like predatory lending. We do this by supporting legislation as a part of the New York State Equity Agenda like the Stop Taking Our Pay (STOP) Act. The STOP Act targets predatory “earned wage access” apps that are payday loans in everything but name. They charge users upwards of 800% interest by calling what they take from borrowers fees and tips. These parasitic “fintech” apps have extracted over half a billion dollars from New York’s lowest earners since 2019.

LIJWJ stands as a countermeasure to the anti-worker narratives we see in the media and government. But our movement needs to grow and increase our volume to become louder than the billionaires! With your help LIJWJ can continue convening Workers’ Rights Boards and speaking up for workers across Long Island, and the state.

Please head to our Givebutter page and donate NOW to get us to our $20,000 goal! And don’t forget! Every dollar donated will be doubled for twice the impact. Donate before May 22nd and let’s fight for a future where workers are treated with respect, dignity and can earn their fair share! Anything you can give will really make a difference, especially if you select a recurring donation to become a monthly sustainer. The more support we have from people like yourself the stronger we can show up for workers!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

At the time of our 2025 Spring Match, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill was not yet law, and LIJWJ was fighting alongside many other Long Islanders in stating our unequivocal opposition to the bill. Despite numerous visits to the offices of our local elected officials and other demonstrations at healthcare facilities across Long Island, the call by a majority of Long Islanders to vote against the bill was ignored by many of our representatives.

Now in 2026 our already struggling communities are facing a total disruption or outright removal of their healthcare. Leading the opposition to this austerity are workers across Long Island, especially in the healthcare sector represented by 1199 SEIU and NYSNA. The nurses, technicians, and all workers who contribute to the care of patients know better than anyone what patients need.

They also see firsthand how our healthcare system centered around profit generation is failing to provide the level of care our communities deserve. A system where healthcare executives make seven figure salaries while working Long Islanders delay or don’t seek care because it’s too expensive is not a just one, and we can do so much better.

Long Island Jobs With Justice is dedicated to centering these workers and amplifying their voices. If all the administrators, executives, and others occupying the upper levels of the top-heavy healthcare industry were to all quit their jobs tomorrow, workers could and would keep our hospitals running and caring for patients. We can do without the bosses, but we absolutely cannot do without workers.

With this knowledge and these convictions around economic justice and worker power, Long Island Jobs With Justice will continue joining healthcare workers in demanding what our communities deserve.  

Today is the perfect day to contribute what you can to help us continue this work, and through May 22 your donation will be DOUBLED!  

Click here to donate now!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Celebrate International Workers’ Day by joining the ICE OUT of Long Island March For Humanity on May 1st!  

“The Heart of Long Island is Under Attack.

This International Workers’ Day— a day rooted as much in global struggle as it is in solidarity, the Village of Hempstead is calling on communities from Long Island to New York City and beyond to join the ICE Out of Long Island: March for Humanity mobilization.

May Day is about workers, immigrants, organizers, and everyday people coming together to demand dignity, safety, and fair treatment. That history is not separate from this moment, but rather a continuation. Today, the same forces that exploit labor and divide communities are fueling fear and enforcement in places like Hempstead.

Stand with us— be it for the general strike, a day of no shopping, in defense of democracy, the end of ceaseless detentions, deportations, and U.S. instigated wars, the demand for dignity of our workers, unions, and immigrants—the very backbone of our society, resonates across our interconnected struggles. International Worker’s Day reminds us that this fight belongs to all of us.”

We hope to see you at the march or out there not shopping or working!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

It is spring once again! As nature emerges from the frigid winter, Long Island Jobs with Justice is emerging too by launching another Spring Match campaign to help sustain and protect our work in the year ahead!  

Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, we have secured $10,000 of matching funds for this campaign, meaning every dollar you donate will be DOUBLED until we hit $10,000! Be one of the first donors and help start us off STRONG by heading to this link now!

We’re well into a new year and, like all years in recent memory, 2026 is turning up the dial on injustice. Our current times are fraught with uncertainty, dread, and deepening disillusionment towards the systems and institutions that have brought us here. Most headlines these days are indeed very grim, but look closer to home and you will find glimmers of hope.  

Moments like these really highlight the importance of our communities and the collective power they have to support and protect one another. Across Long Island people are organizing against the brutality of our current regime in their workplaces, legislatures, and in the streets. We hope that the tragedies of today will revive the vigor and solidarity that led workers to great victories in the past, and believe that only workers united in common cause for justice can bring the change we need. We are dedicated to fueling and fostering worker power as an organization!

But LIJWJ cannot do its part to help build the workers’ movement without funding. Donate now to our 2026 Spring Match at whatever level you’re able and help us get this fundraiser started! Whether it’s $5, $10, or $100 your donation will be DOUBLED during the match period. If you can donate $5 it will turn into $10, and there is also the option to become a sustaining donor!

Building worker power takes all of us! Become a sustaining donor with a monthly gift at whatever level works for you. Just $5 a month adds up to $60 a year, and thanks to this match, that becomes $120! Your monthly support helps us build the stability and steady people-powered resources we need to move into 2027 stronger and ready to keep growing the workers’ movement.

Your donation to the 2026 Spring Match will help LIJWJ get boots on the ground when workers strike. It will help us continue the behind-the-scenes coalition building and project management we do. The match period ends on May 22, but no need to put off donating until then!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Long Island Jobs With Justice is reviving its Workers’ Rights Board this spring! Our last board convened in 2024 to document the struggles of local Starbucks workers and formed a base of community supporters who have joined workers to demand justice on picket lines, shop floors, and corporate executive offices. Now in 2026, we are focusing on a significant source of wealth extraction from Long Island – school construction projects.

For generations, school construction projects on Long Island created a strong foundation of union jobs that offered good wages and stable employment that helped families build a solid middle-class life. But over the last decade something has changed.
Weak enforcement of wage laws and poor oversight of school construction have allowed bad contractors to exploit workers, steal from the community and jeopardize the safety of our schools. Our communities deserve better!

This Workers’ Rights Board public hearing will receive testimony on wage theft, unsafe conditions, fraud, and the urgent need for accountability in our school construction.Testimonies will be received by our Workers’ Rights Board Commissioners:

• Mary Anne Trasciatti, Director, Labor Studies Hofstra University
• Charlene Obernauer, Executive Director, NY Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH)
• Richard S. Haase, President, Half Hollow Hills Teachers Association

Join us in witness and get in on the ground floor of a community effort to restore jobs, justice, and quality construction for our public schools! Click the flyer above or use this link to register!

Hope to see you there!

For generations, school construction projects on Long Island created a strong foundation of union jobs that offered good wages and stable employment that helped families build a solid middle-class life. Those jobs supported local workers, local businesses, and our communities as a whole.

But over the last decade something has changed.

Weak enforcement of wage laws and poor oversight of school construction projects have opened the door for law breaking contractors to win more local work, forcing responsible contractors out of the process and jeopardizing the well-being of our schools. In some cases, contractors are committing wage and insurance fraud, evading taxes, cutting corners on materials, and stealing from taxpayers. In fact, more than a dozen school districts have seen contractors arrested for fraud, wage theft, and shoddy building. Learn more here and see if your community has been affected.

At the end of the day, workers lose out, our community’s tax dollars are wasted, and the safety of our children, teachers and school staff are put at risk.

Our communities deserve better!

School boards control how millions of our local tax dollars are spent and those decisions directly affect the safety of our schools. When residents show up and speak out, it can shape the outcome.

That’s why we’re urging Long Island residents to show up at school board meetings to speak up for responsible construction practices, fair wages for workers, good use of taxpayer dollars, and safe schools for our community.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can get involved and stand with others to protect our community from exploitative contractors, join a community briefing on Wednesday, March 18th from 6-7pm, discussing how we can put an end to corruption and exploitation in school construction on Long Island. Register here.

Hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice