Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

Here it is Black Friday, the malls have been mobbed since midnight, and retailers are saying they want to be allowed to open on Thanksgiving Day too. They argue that consumers should have the choice to shop on Thanksgiving, which state law now prohibits. Rep. Colleen Garry has in fact filed legislation (House Bill 00989; [...]

  The Massachusetts Fiscal Year 2012 Budget is currently in conference committee; the House and Senate working on negotiations over its final draft. Recently, the Senate passed its own version of the Fair Employment and Security amendment, Section 122.   Much of this amendment, particularly sections 1-7, regards the implementation of the Homeland Security created [...]

A lot goes into choosing an appropriate minimum wage level.  Like most questions of government intervention in markets, it comes down to efficiency and equity.  But even if everybody agreed on a balance between the two, there is still no guarantee that the intentions behind the law will match reality. In the interest of providing [...]

Industry representatives claim that non-competition agreements are necessary for companies to protect their intellectual property, more specifically to protect their “trade secrets.” On the contrary, a non-competition (N-C) agreement is the wrong tool for protecting confidential intellectual property (IP). The primary effect of N-C agreements is to suppress competition in the labor market and N-C agreements are unethical.

this proposed law would now be watered down to the point that it will have little impact over its current misuse. With no protection for those making over $100K, mid level managment and design staff is stuck with the same restraint of trade.

In my case, I was/am a sales rep, not a high level mgr. I was recently terminated “without cause” by my employer and even though I was offered a great position with another company I cannot accept the postion as my previous employer has told me they would seek an injunction against me and file [...]