Equal Opportunity
We advocate for people who want to excel in life but suffer unfair disadvantages because of their race, ethnicity, gender, citizenship, or other personal traits and circumstances. Every individual should have an equal opportunity to learn, work, and earn success in his or her chosen path.
We use our influence to shape public policy that removes barriers to equal opportunity and provides every possibility for all people to become prosperous and self-reliant.
Utah Legislative Update 2022
The Utah Legislature passed several bills during the 2022 session that will help those who are poor and disadvantaged rise up to become free and prosperous. One is Senate Bill 35--Expungement Modifications. This bill sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler makes the process...
Monetary Bail Is Harmful to People Who Are Poor
Government created monetary bail to hold people who have been accused of crimes accountable, but the bail system...
“Returnships” for People Returning to Work
Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson recently signed an executive order requiring most...
Support for NV Bill AB219: Sealing Criminal Records When Charges Have Been Dismissed
We support Nevada bill AB219, which would allow courts to automatically seal the record of a person when a prosecutor...
Support for Utah Bill SB 165: Automatic Removal from the Sex Offender Registry
We support SB 165, which would automatically remove from the sex and kidnap offender registry former prisoners who meet all the qualifications for removal. Here is our statement: People who have...
Support for Utah Bill SB 50: Giving Youth Who Commit Crimes a Second Chance
We support Utah Bill S.B. 50, which makes sure that people who commit crimes in their youth are treated proportionally to their age, even if the crime is discovered in their adulthood. It also keeps...
Support for AJR1: Removing Demeaning Labels from NV Constitution
We support Nevada resolution AJR1, which would change language in the Nevada Constitution from "the Insane, Blind and Deaf and Dumb" to "persons with a significant mental illness, persons who are...
No One Should Have to Choose Between Their Dignity and a Paycheck
Nearly all of us would agree that employers should not be allowed to refuse to hire or fire an employee because she is a woman, Hispanic, Catholic, or pregnant. But in Utah and Nevada these types of...
Children with Criminal Records Should Be Given an Automatic Second Chance
Just in 2019, 12,243 youth and children (age 17 or younger) were arrested in Utah. In 2018, 13,292 were arrested. Some of these youth were arrested for serious offenses (murder, rape, robbery,...
Clean Slate Law Helps Some Utahns with Criminal Records, But We Can Do More
In 2019, the Utah Legislature passed a bill that allows some people with nonviolent, misdemeanor criminal records to have their convictions automatically expunged under certain conditions. This law...
Romney’s Faith Should Move Him to a Humane Immigration Policy
CEO Paul Mero recently wrote an op-ed for the Salt Lake Tribune urging Senator Mitt Romney to use a human approach in addressing immigrants on the southern border of the United States. Here is an...
Utah’s Senators Should Vote No on Ron Mortensen
CEO Paul Mero recently wrote an op-ed for the Salt Lake Tribune arguing that Pres. Trump's nomination to head the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) should not be affirmed by...
One of every four residents in Utah’s San Juan County lives in poverty
Utah’s San Juan County - dominated by the Navajo reservation - languishes with one of every four residents (25.9 percent) living in poverty. That is 22nd worst among counties in the West. At the...
Conservatives are Wrong to Dismiss Feminism
In the six months since the #MeToo movement began, conservatives have, at times rightly, questioned or criticized some aspects of it. But too often they have wrongly downplayed, ignored, or...
No, the ‘Real Gender Wage Gap’ isn’t 51 Percent
For decades, the term “gender wage gap” has referred to the difference in median earnings between full-time working women and full-time working men. Unfortunately, the term is becoming confused...
Best Practices Guide for Closing the Gender Wage Gap
The Salt Lake Chamber and its affiliated Women’s Leadership Institute urges all businesses to review the contents of this document, identify what specific actions they can take to close the gender...
Utah now has America’s biggest gender wage gap – women earn 70 cents on the dollar compared to men
Women who work full time and year-round in both states on average earned only 70 cents on the dollar in 2016 compared with men, according to a new study using U.S. Census data by the American...
How Utah’s Child Care Shortage Impacts the Gender Wage Gap
When women can't find child care, whether because it's unavailable or unaffordable, some turn to jobs that may pay less but offer greater mothering flexibility, while others leave the workforce...
Possible Civil Rights Violations at Utah Elementary and High Schools
There at least 23 open investigations into alleged civil rights violations — most on the basis of disability, sex or race — in elementary and high schools across seven Utah school districts that...
About Us
We are advocates for those who are poor and disadvantaged. Our mission is to lift every person in need to prosperity and self-reliance through sound public policy that affirms each person’s human dignity and allows for every opportunity to flourish. We work with all people of good will who share our vision.
We invite you to join us. . . .
