The $15 figure is not an accident, but it's also not the product of careful research. It's a slogan from an activist movement — Fight for $15 — that's been working for years and is now racking up an impressive series of policy wins.

For example, one study released last month by economists at the University of California, San Diego and the American Enterprise Institute estimated that minimum wage hikes of more than a dollar implemented between 2013 and 2016 — such as those in California, Washington, and New York — reduced employment among low-skilled workers by just under 1.5%.

Now, another batch of proposed wage hikes is headed for ballots in 2018

"The places we can gather signatures the best are at the parades and the waiting lines at the outhouses," says Scott Nodland, a citizen activist leading the effort. "We expect that now that the snow just melted and temperatures hit the high 50s, we can begin to do something."

As the market for low-wage labor has gotten more concentrated, some economists have theorized that large employers haven't needed to bargain as hard for workers, so they've kept pay artificially depressed.

"On the North Dakota job service site, there are 14,400 jobs available," Nodland, who has worked in many fields and refers to himself as an "entrepreneur," says. "And last year, there was a net loss of population in North Dakota. Obviously something is out of balance, and I'm suggesting it's wages."

A national group called the Fairness Project, funded by a California healthcare union, is taking that message to several states this cycle with minimum wage campaigns as well as ballot initiatives

"Employers have the power to set wages," says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "And when it's not completely determined by perfect competition, they are going to set wages too low, and they will always complain that they can't find enough workers at the going wage."

A recent paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute points out that people often switch jobs in low-wage industries, so even a 3% loss in jobs could just mean that all workers end up with 3% fewer total hours — but if they were paid 10% more for those hours, everybody comes out ahead.

Another study out last month from two Census Bureau economists found that, based on previous minimum wage increases, a 10% hike would raise income growth for workers in the bottom quarter of wage earners by about 10% — even including any possible reduction in hours.

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the U.S., announced the same month that it would increase starting pay

On Jan. 1, 18 U.S. states raised their minimum wages.

For more than a century, politicians have been passing minimum wage laws and opponents have warned of their hidden costs. The argument still rages from Washington to London to Berlin: Does a minimum wage lead to better lives or fewer jobs, more prosperity or less?

**Reflex Math

**Math-U-See

fully multisensory or partially multisensory

The former is possibly most helped by interventions emphasising understanding, and the latter may be by drill-type interventions.

So in a way, research on this is just beginning. I personally am involved in a project to test a remediation designed for dyscalculic children, and there are other such projects underway.

There has been much work on this question in the educational field, and there are many curricula designed for children with difficulties in mathematics. However very few of these curricula have been rigorously tested for their efficacy, and the studies that do exist include children who have difficulties in mathematics for all sorts of reasons, not just those with dyscalculia.

a more detailed examination of mathematics abilities.

Another researcher, Geary (1993), has argued for three different subtypes of dyscalculia, one based on difficulties in fact retrieval (ie. learning simple addition sums, and times tables), one based on difficulties in learning procedures and strategies, and one based on visuo-spatial difficulties.

just have dyscalculia

• Brian Butterworth. (1999). The Mathematical Brain. MacMillan, London. General Introduction to numerical cognition for the public.

Shalev & Gross-Tsur (2001).

brain dysfunction is the only explanation left

attentional disorders