Marginal Successes, Revised Expectations, Broken Promises – A Presidency in Review

Part 4: No Increased Claim Limits on Unpaid Wages & Benefits in Business Bankruptcy

As we discussed in Part 3, there were two essential ingredients to candidate Obama’s promise for pro-worker bankruptcy reform. The second prong of Obama’s promised bankruptcy reform would allow employee-creditors to petition the bankruptcy court to recover larger portions of their unpaid wages and benefits from a bankrupt employer. This would result in giving employee-creditors greater priority as against other creditors.

Obama Promised Reform: Protecting Employees and Retirees as Creditors of Bankrupt Employers By Increasing Allowable Claims on Unpaid Wages and Benefits

As a presidential hopeful, Obama promised bankruptcy reform that would “[i]ncrease the amount of unpaid wages and benefits workers can claim in bankruptcy court against their employer”...