The rising instability of family incomes
Most Americans are aware that income inequality has increased in the last 30 years. Less well known is that income instability--how much families' incomes fluctuate up and down--has also grown substantially. In fact, families are facing much greater income swings than they did a generation ago. In a new Briefing Paper, The Rising Instability of American Family Incomes, authors Jacob S. Hacker and Elisabeth Jacobs discuss rising family income instability, its potential causes, and the economic implications of this disturbing trend. On Thursday, May 29, the authors presented their findings in an EPI forum, along with other noted authors, journalists, and thinkers who discussed the current challenges to American families' economic security. Audio, video, and a full written transcript of the event are now available. (News release [PDF])
Pulling Apart 2008
The gap between the richest and poorest families, as well as between the richest and middle-income families, grew significantly in most states over the past two decades. A new study of the latest Census Bureau data shows that the nation's long-standing trend of growing inequality has only accelerated in the last several years, as incomes fell for poor and stagnated for middle-income families in a number of states. Read the full-report (Pulling Apart — A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends), the press release, and fact sheets on every state co-published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute here.
Reading the labor market's vital signs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics release of its jobs report on Friday, April 4, provides an important set of labor market vital signs, which are key indicators of our overall economic health and the living standards of the vast majority of working families who rely primarily on wage income. A new EPI issue brief outlines some of the most important indicators and benchmarks from the monthly jobs report, what they mean for families' economic well-being in the current downturn, and the longer-term trends that give them context. Also be sure to check EPI's Jobs Picture for our full analysis of the jobs data for March.
Not-so-super Tuesday for state labor markets
Feb. 5 will be the first coast-to-coast election since the nation's recent economic troubles became front page news. To see how the 24 "Super Tuesday" states are faring over recent months in terms of unemployment rates, health care coverage, pension rates, and other important economic indicators, read EPI's new Issue Brief. (See also news release.)
The Erosion of Employment-based Health Insurance
EPI's new Briefing Paper documents the chilling trend in the erosion of the health insurance most Americans receive, employer-provided coverage. The situation has steadily worsened since 2000, as evinced by both the national and state-level data contained in this report. (News release [PDF])
Strengthening Unemployment Insurance
In conjunction with the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, Urban Institute Expert Wayne Vroman critiques a proposal to replace unemployment insurance with wage insurance and private "temporary earnings replacement accounts." Vroman suggests that making unemployment insurance more broadly available is a higher priority than wage insurance and personal accounts are bad policy. Read the entire report and the news release [PDF] online.
Bush bragging on historically weak job growth
The White House and its partisans have nothing to boast about in regard to the job growth in this business cycle, something made clear in EPI's latest Issue Brief comparing the current recovery to those of the past.
Alleviating poverty
The Agenda for Shared Prosperity forum Alleviating Poverty was held on Tuesday, October 2. Author Barbara Ehrenreich, Nancy Cauthen of Columbia University's National Center for Children and Poverty, and EPI's Jared Bernstein discussed various issues and present new research on the topic of poverty amelioration. Check out audio, video, slide shows, and a full transcript from the event.
Work, Work Supports, and Safety Nets
In a rich, advanced economy like the United States, poverty should be viewed as an aberration. This Agenda for Shared Prosperity briefing paper describe a set of social welfare policies that ensures that work is a pathway out of poverty and that revitalizes the nation's safety net and social insurance systems that keep people from falling into privation when the market fails them. (News release [PDF])
Improving Work Supports
Analysts estimate that anywhere from a quarter to a third of U.S. workers hold low-wage jobs that provide few prospects for advancement and wage growth. Low wages, few employer-provided benefits, minimal savings, and increased debt have left large numbers of American workers and their families economically vulnerable. In fact, many such families are merely one crisis—a serious illness, job loss, or divorce—away from financial devastation. In the Agenda for Shared Prosperity briefing paper Improving Work Supports, Nancy K. Cauthen explains why such programs are needed and how the United States needs to reform them. (News release [PDF])
Labor Day 2007: Most workers' wages stuck in the slow lane
On the sixth Labor Day of this economic recovery, the pace of progress ranges from slow to stalled for the nation's middle- and low-wage working people. Even the modest wage gains from the beginning of this recovery period have been fading. Since 2001, real hourly wages rose only 3% for the middle-income worker, with none of this historically small progress occurring after 2003. While most working people remain stuck in the economic slow lane, the better-off among us have avoided the congestion on the ground by flying over it. Since 2001 those with wages higher than 95% of all workers have seen their wage rise by 9%. A new EPI report, Economy's Gains Fail to Reach Most Workers' Paychecks, analyzes the state of working America this Labor Day, looking behind the latest data to the forces at work in an economy that doesn't seem to be playing by the rules. (Media kit)
State and federal minimum wages, 2007-09
With the recent passage of a federal minimum wage bill, the first national minimum wage increase in over a decade is imminent. This Issue Brief shows how the federal increase will impact minimum wage workers state-by-state.
Getting immigration reform right
Immigration is one of the most difficult issues policy makers face, mainly because of complex contending political, ethnic, and economic interests. Effective immigration policies clearly will affect the strength of our economy, social and ethnic stability, and our relations with Mexico and other countries. The United States must get it right this time. Read the latest Briefing Paper in EPI's Agenda for Shared Prosperity initiative, Getting Immigration Reform Right by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall. (News release [PDF])
A Fish is not a Fowl: Tax Credits and the Minimum Wage
Critics of the minimum wage sometimes suggest tax credits as an alternative means to increase the income of low-wage earners. Tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit, are worthwhile in their own right, but they are not plausible substitutes for an increase in the minimum wage. A new Briefing Paper, A Fish is not a Fowl, discusses the problems of substituting a tax credit for a minimum wage increase.
State minimum wages: A policy that works
Although the federal minimum wage last rose in September 1997, minimum wages in the United States have not been static since then. Through the end of 2005, 17 states and the District of Columbia raised their minimum wages a total of 47 times. What is the effect of these state policies? The new Briefing Paper, State Minimum Wages: A Policy That Works, is an in-depth analysis that shows that wages are higher and employment is no lower in these states than they would have been without the changes.
Securing the wage floor
The federal minimum wage has not seen an increase since 1997 and its value has dropped by 20% since then. In inflation-adjusted dollars, it is at its lowest value in 50 years. Automatic annual adjustments to the wage, or indexing, has gained increasing support and is becoming more common among the U.S. states that have their own minimum wage laws. This new Briefing Paper, Securing the Wage Floor, reviews how indexing would maintain the value of the federal minimum wage. (News release [PDF])
Hundreds of Economists Say: Raise the Minimum Wage
Five Nobel Prize winners and other leading economists, joined by hundreds of others, urge a raise in the minimum wage. Read their statement.
The State of Working America 2006/2007
On Labor Day, the Economic Policy Institute released its advance edition of The State of Working America 2006/2007. Prepared biennially since 1988, EPI's flagship publication sums up the problems and challenges facing American workers, presenting analyses of the latest data on family incomes, wages, income mobility, international comparisons, wealth, and poverty. Now in its 10th edition, the book's authors continue the tradition of closely examining the economy's effect on the living standards of the American people. With over 300 tables and charts, The State of Working America 2006/2007 is the comprehensive reference work consulted by those wanting a portrait of the economic well-being of the nation's workforce. Visit the StateOfWorkingAmerica.org Web site for a host of online resources, including the book's executive summary, introduction, and excerpted chapters as well as fact sheets, Economic Snapshots, press releases, and a full archive of every table and figure that appears in the printed book.
New State of Working America data available in DataZone
Looking for a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel format) or presentation-quality table (Adobe PDF) of some of the data used in the latest edition of The State of Working America? Look no further than EPI's online Datazone.
Jobs Picture
For same-day analysis of the most recent employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, see EPI's Jobs Picture.
Minimum wage misery
With no federally mandated change in the minimum wage in nine years, inflation gradually has ground down its purchasing power to its lowest level in over half a century. For a full analysis, read EPI's new Issue Brief, co-released with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Unrelenting disparities in wealth holdings in the United States
Get a comprehensive examination of the way wealth is distributed among Americans in the Wealth chapter [PDF] of The State of Working America 2006/2007. For this and other special previews from EPI's flagship book, visit the StateofWorkingAmerica.org Web site. (News release [PDF])
Guest worker wages
The Senate immigration bill requires employers to pay "guest workers" a prevailing wage. This EPI Issue Brief explains how this helps workers.
How does the United States stack up against its international peers?
Get a comprehensive answer to this question in the International Comparisons [PDF] chapter from The State of Working America 2006/2007. For this and other special previews from EPI's flagship book, visit the StateofWorkingAmerica.org Web site. (News release [PDF])
State of Working America 2006/2007
On Labor Day, EPI releases its advance edition of The State of Working America 2006/2007. For more information, including previews of findings featured in EPI's online Snapshots and the early release of specific chapters, visit the new State of Working America Web site.
Minimum Wage Issue Guide
Check out EPI's recently revised Issue Guide on the Minimum Wage, a resource that includes downloadable data, charts, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on this issue.
The Wal-Mart debate
The benefits and costs of Wal-Mart's expansion across the United States have been hotly debated. Critics of the retailer have documented the extent to which Wal-Mart uses its market power to undermine workers' compensation, but supporters of Wal-Mart claim that the lower prices offered by the retailer more than compensate consumers for any depressing effect the company's expansion has on wages. EPI's new Issue Brief, The Wal-Mart Debate: A False Choice Between Prices and Wages, addresses how the retailer's economic benefits can be retained even if their labor compensation is dramatically improved.
The economic impact of local living wages
Prior to the passage of living wage laws, initial studies of their impact predicted high costs to local governments, employers, and consumers, as well as a loss of jobs for low-income earners. But the most reliable research on living wage ordinances belies these predictions, showing that these ordinances benefit working families with little or no negative effects. This Briefing Paper discusses the current research and the positive impact of living wages.
Immigrant Worker Centers
Immigrant workers are changing the landscape of low-wage work and the labor market, with President Bush advocating a guest-worker program, Congress pushing increased border security and patrol. But as national policy is debated, a locally based grassroots movement is taking the initiative to assist millions of immigrants in the American workforce facing poor pay, bad working conditions, and few prospects to advance to better jobs. Worker Centers—Building Communities at the Edge of the Dream (EPI's new book co-published with Cornell University) takes one of the first comprehensive looks at the rising phenomenon of worker centers, fast-growing institutions that improve the lives of immigrant workers through service advocacy and organizing.
Income inequality on the rise
In most states, the gap between the highest-income families and poor and middle-income families grew significantly between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, according to the new study, Pulling Apart, by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The report includes fact sheets for 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Worker centers
Low-wage workers in the U.S. face obstacles including racial and ethnic discrimination, a pervasive lack of wage enforcement, misclassification of their employment, and for some, their status as undocumented immigrants. In the past, political parties, unions, and fraternal and mutual-aid societies served as important vehicles for immigrant workers who hoped to achieve political and economic integration. As these traditional civic institutions have weakened, these workers must seek new structures for mutual support. Worker centers are among the institutions to which workers turn as they strive to build vibrant communities and attain economic and political visibility. Learn more about this path-breaking trend in the EPI Briefing Paper, Worker Centers—Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream.
Worker Skills and Job Requirements
There is a widespread belief that U.S. workers' education and skills are not adequate for the demands of jobs in the modern economy. Many believe that this presumed mismatch between the skills workers possess and the skills that jobs require will become even more serious as the workplace becomes increasingly high-tech and service-oriented. But many simple assumptions regarding skills mismatch in the U.S. labor market do not stand up well to closer examination. The latest EPI book, Worker Skills and Job Requirements, provides an overview of the skills mismatch debate, reviews research on skill levels, and scrutinizes trends in the skills workers possess, the skills employers demand, and the evidence for a mismatch between the two.
Labor Day 2005 sees continuation of off-kilter economic expansion
EPI's Labor Day Briefing Paper, An Off-Kilter Expansion, examines a variety of economic indicators to illustrate that, despite the fact that measured unemployment is historically low, there is still much slack in the job market. Data on wages, employment, and the current 3.2 million job deficit portray a labor market that still has a long way to go before it is performing at potential. Wages for most workers continue to lag inflation—thus wages have fallen in real terms—yet productivity has been growing at a particularly fast clip over the past five years. Until the engine of economic growth lifts the fortunes of all working families, not just the chosen few, the economy will continue to disappoint most workers.
Basic family budgets briefing paper & online calculator
The ability of families to meet their most basic needs is an important measure of economic stability and well-being. Unlike poverty rates, basic family budget measurements account for variations in living standards around the country by calculating the costs for "basic needs" items like food, housing, and transportation. EPI's new Briefing Paper, Basic Family Budgets, updates much of the analysis found in the 2001 study, Hardships in America. Also updated is EPI's online Family Budgets Calculator, which provides the specific dollar amounts needed for six different family types living in any of 400 areas in the United States.
Federal minimum wage falls to 56-year low
Since it was last increased eight years ago, the value of the minimum wage has eroded due to the effects of inflation. Get the full story in Unhappy Anniversary, an Issue Brief co-released by EPI and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Economy up, people down
The most recent Census report shows that declining earnings undercut income growth in 2004, with increases in poverty rates and overall inequality. For a full analysis of these trends and their effect on working families, read the Income Picture.
The rising stakes of job loss
In a sharp break from historical precedent, long-term joblessness has stubbornly persisted in this recovery, despite the falling unemployment rates. Read EPI's Briefing Paper, The Rising Stakes of Job Loss, for a full analysis.
DataZone national data updated
Revised national data on wage and compensation trends taken from EPI's State of Working America 2004-05 can be found in EPI's Web feature, The DataZone. These updates can be viewed and saved as either Adobe Acrobat files or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
The Lukewarm 2004 Labor Market
Despite some signs of improvement in last year's labor market, wages still fell, job growth lagged, and unemployment spells remained long. Read the full analysis in this report co-released by EPI and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Measuring family well-being
How have middle-income families fared since 2000? The EPI Briefing Paper Less Cash in Their Pockets: Trends in Income, Wages, Taxes, and Health Spending of Middle-Income Families, 2000-03 finds that most middle-income families lost ground between 2000 and 2003 and now have less income available to meet their needs.
Unionization and Poverty in New York
Download EPI's Working Paper, Unionization and Poverty: The Case of New York City Retail Workers,
for an analysis of how the promotion of collective bargaining could help the retail workers of New York City. (News release available in the EPI News Room.)
Understanding the severity of the current labor slump
For details on why today's labor market conditions are no cause for celebration, see the new EPI Briefing Paper Understanding the severity of the current labor slump.
It's Time for a Raise
The minimum wage helps to fight poverty and bolster the bargaining power of low-wage workers. It's been seven long years since the last increase. That's why over 550 economists—including four Nobel Laureates—unanimously agree that increasing the minimum wage to $7.00 an hour would be beneficial to the labor market, workers, and the overall economy. They also support current efforts—such as those in Florida, Nevada, and New York—to make modest increases in state minimum wages. Read the statement and the list of signatories.
Unemployment insurance and nonstandard work
Historically, labor market policies like unemployment insurance (UI) have been geared toward “regular” full-time employment, but the increasing size of the nonstandard workforce may leave many workers falling between the cracks—ineligible for benefits and unprotected by workplace regulations. Because workers in nonstandard arrangements are more likely to be unemployed, UI benefits are more important for them than for other types of workers. An EPI Working Paper examines the feasibility of extending UI benefits to workers in nonstandard work arrangements.
Time to Repair the Florida Wage Floor
Florida voters may have an opportunity next year to vote to raise the Florida minimum wage to $6.15 and set moderate annual increases. Such a ballot initiative would be both modest in terms of economic impact and significant to the many Floridians that rely on the earnings of minimum wage workers. For more details on the potential impacts of this increase, download the full paper, Time to Repair the Florida Wage Floor.
Extending unemployment benefits
Go to EPI Viewpoints to download graphs and notes from an October 17 EPI presentation on the necessity for further extending unemployment insurance benefits.
EPI launches JobWatch.org
With the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' August labor market data, EPI posts its first installment of JobWatch, a new initiative designed to clearly track current trends in the U.S. labor market, offering up-to-date analysis of national and state data. The August BLS data represents the first opportunity to compare the Bush Administration's claims for job creation resulting from its "Jobs and Growth Plan" tax cuts. In the first month alone the plan fell 437,000 jobs short of its job growth projections for August. Go to JobWatch.org for the full analysis.
Labor market left behind
Although the recent recession was officially declared over as of November 2001, on Labor Day 2003 the job market will remain in a rut. Unemployment has climbed, the nation’s payrolls reveal the worst hiring slump since the Great Depression, and wages have been growing more slowly and even falling in real terms for some workers. How could it be that the nation’s economy is supposedly in recovery yet the job market is much weaker now than when the recession ended? The answer to this question and others can be found in EPI’s Labor Day Briefing Paper, Labor Market Left Behind.
How unions help all workers
Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and nonunionized workers. Unions play a pivotal role in securing and enforcing labor protections such as overtime compensation, family and medical leave, and health and safety regulations. The Briefing Paper How Unions Help All Workers, by EPI President Lawrence Mishel, examines the effect of unions on wages, fringe benefits, total compensation, pay inequality, and workplace protections.
Grading the Bush "jobs and growth" plan
With the economy continuing to lose jobs, unemployment above 6% and periods of joblessness growing longer for more and more working people, Americans need the economy to grow fast enough to get people back to work. The Bush Administration’s “jobs and growth” tax cut plan was sold to the public with the promise that it will add 1.4 million more new jobs by the end of 2004—over and above the 4.1 million new jobs the administration projects the economy would generate without any tax cuts. In Senate testimony on Monday, June 9, 2003, Economic Policy Institute President Lawrence Mishel presented an analysis of the current jobs situation and offered a method for tracking the Bush Administration’s progress toward its stated goal of 5.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
Share of workers in 'nonstandard' jobs declines
The tight labor markets of the late 1990s through early 2001 helped narrow the gap in pay and benefits for nonstandard work arrangements but certainly didn’t eliminate those disparities. Evidence continues to mount that these employment arrangements are predominately driven by employer preferences rather than those of workers, as a smaller percentage of the U.S. labor force chose to work in nonstandard jobs. Read the EPI Briefing Paper Share of Workers in ‘Nonstandard’ Jobs Declines for updated data and analysis of the Institute’s ongoing research into nonstandard work arrangements.
Comp time bill offers nothing for workers
For an explanation why a proposed compensatory, or “comp,” time bill would erode worker protections and create a strong financial incentive for employers to lengthen the workweek, read EPI's Issue Brief, The naked truth about comp time.
Retirement Security Issue Guide
Check out EPI's new Issue Guide on Retirement Security, a downloadable online resource that includes data,charts, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on the topic.
Jobless recovery grinds onward
The news on the jobs front is bad and getting worse, according to EPI's new Issue Brief, The Jobless Recovery, which presents a stark picture of the still weakening U.S. labor force.
Time's up for the unemployed
Read EPI's Issue Brief, Time's Up for the Unemployed, for an explanation as to why Congress should use the unemployment insurance trust fund for its intended purpose—extending benefits via the Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program.
State of Working America 2002/2003
Preliminary findings from our biennial State of Working America were released to the press on Labor Day weekend. The book shows how the strong economy that persisted throughout the latter 1990s, when historically low unemployment combined with faster productivity growth, lifted the economic fortunes of working families for the first time in decades. But the labor market recession that began in 2001 has resulted in a sharp jump in unemployment and stagnant job growth. Unless the economy reverses course soon, working families can look forward to high and rising unemployment that will generate wage stagnation, higher poverty rates, and rising inequality. To learn more about how America's workers are faring in terms of family income, wages, jobs, wealth, poverty, and in comparison to workers abroad, check out the Executive Summary, introduction, table of contents, or news release for EPI's flagship publication, The State of Working America 2002/2003. The Financial Times calls it "the most comprehensive independent analysis of the U.S. labor market."
Immigration and poverty
Recently released data from the 2000 Census show that the nation's poverty rate fell less than one percentage point between 1989 and 1999, and even increased in some states. Media coverage has often dismissed this trend as being the result of increased immigration, but a preliminary analysis shows that immigration's role has been exaggerated, crowding out consideration of factors such as inequality and unemployment from the discussion. For a full analysis, read the EPI Briefing Paper, Immigration and Poverty-Disappointing income growth in the 1990s not solely the result of growing immigrant population.
Recession takes toll on living standards
For an analysis of the income data from the Bureau of the Census, read EPI's Income Picture.
Retirement out of reach
With the end of the biggest bull market in Wall Street's history and the resulting losses in household wealth, debate has intensified over the future of America's retirement system. In the meantime, the scandals around Enron and other corporations have forced policy makers to question the security of company savings plans. These new misgivings, however, have not stopped proponents of Social Security privatization from continuing to argue for greater reliance on financial markets. Read the EPI Briefing Paper, Retirement Out of Reach, for an analysis of the risks of relying on financial markets for adequate retirement income, or check out the press release.
Benefits running out for unemployed workers
Hundreds of thousands of workers began to exhaust their unemployment insurance extensions in June, and long-term unemployment continues to rise. Current law, however, keeps almost every state from triggering the second round of benefit extensions. For details on what should be done to reform the UI system, download Time to Fix the Unemployment Benefits Program, co-released by EPI and the National Employment Law Program, or read the press release online.
Book on working women skews data, misses issue
Check out EPI Viewpoints for an op-ed that explains how a recent book on professional women and motherhood confuses what employed parents really need to balance work and family.
Flexible schedules and pay for working mothers
Despite the recent attention given to the needs of working mothers for flexible schedules, mothers are no more likely than other workers to be able to determine the times they arrive at and leave work, or to decide when to take an occasional day off. EPI's Briefing Paper, Working Mothers in a Double Bind, explores these issues in detail. Also available are a press release and an audio transcript of an EPI roundtable that brought together the report's author, Elaine McCrate, and other experts who study women and the workplace.
Staying employed after welfare
For many workers, and most welfare recipients, finding and keeping a job begins at home by finding a way to balance all of life's responsibilities. An EPI Briefing Paper, Staying Employed After Welfare, explains how work supports like child care and overall job quality are vital to employment tenure and wage growth for working women who have left the welfare rolls. A press release is also available.
Unemployment insurance issue guide
Check out EPI's Issue Guide on unemployment insurance, a resource that includes an online UI benefits calculator, as well as downloadable data, charts, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on this issue.
Who gets to retire?
For a critique of the Republican pension plan, go to Viewpoints to read EPI President Jeff Faux's piece from The American Prospect.
Pensions under assault
The House of Representatives recently passed the Pension Security Act of 2002, and while much of this legislation is of dubious merit, one provision in particular runs completely contrary to the goal of protecting employee pensions. For more information on how this legislation will undermine the pension protections of lower-paid workers, read EPI's Issue Brief, Pensions Under Assault.
Time to repair the wage floor
The federal minimum wage has lost 10% of its buying power since it was raised in September 1997. Raising the minimum wage in three increments from $5.15 to $6.65 would help lift the earnings of millions of low-wage workers. For more details on what types of workers would see the benefits of this increase, read the press release online or download the full Issue Brief, Time to Repair the Wage Floor.
Retirement insecurity
Between 1989 and 1998, a period of strong economic growth and a booming stock market, the share of households headed by a person approaching retirement age that could expect an adequate income in retirement actually declined. Fewer will have enough income to cross the poverty line, and fewer will be able to recoup a quarter, half, or three-quarters of their pre-retirement income. For more information on this frightening trend, download a PDF copy of EPI's study, Retirement Insecurity, or read the press release online. Also available online are photos and a full audio transcript of the press conference at which the report was released.
Income inequality widens gap between families
Despite tremendous overall economic growth and periods of low unemployment over the past 20 years, the gap between high-income earners and median and low-income families is historically high. Pulling Apart, a study co-released by EPI and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, shows that in all but five states income inequality has increased since the late 1970s.
The high road to low unemployment
Neither the budget proposed by President Bush nor the one put forward by his Democratic opposition will return the U.S. labor market to the sustainable level of unemployment of the late 1990s. Running short-term deficits over the next couple of years, however, can help to stimulate the economy and create more jobs. For details on how fiscal policy can be used to help lower unemployment, read the Issue Brief, The High Road to Low Unemployment.
Failing the unemployed
While the failings of the U.S. unemployment system are troublesome in the best of times, they can be disastrous for working families during a recession such as the current one. EPI's Briefing Paper, Failing the Unemployed, provides a state-by-state evaluation of unemployment insurance systems, grading each state on its eligibility requirements, benefit levels, employer taxes, funding adequacy, and recession preparedness. The report in its entirety is available online, as is a press release and media kit.
Former welfare families need more help
When President Clinton signed welfare reform legislation in 1996, he promised "to make work pay." Several years later, families that left the welfare rolls for the payrolls often find themselves experiencing more hardships, such as going without food, medical care, or housing, than before. EPI's latest Briefing Paper, Former Welfare Families Need More Help, updates the analysis from last year's book, Hardships in America, and charts the privations endured by families that left the welfare rolls in recent years.
Slow growth won't stop rising unemployment
Economic forecasts predict that the economy will start growing, albeit slowly, in the spring of this year. But will a return to positive GDP growth herald the end of unemployment or the reversal of wage erosion for working families? Unfortunately not. In fact, without the proper stimulus package, unemployment will continue its climb throughout 2002 and remain high through 2003 as well. For a detailed analysis, read EPI's Briefing Paper, It Ain't Over Till It's Really Over.
In praise of full employment
Pundits and policy makers have tended to view the recent rise in unemployment as a "return" to a normal, sustainable rate. The cost of taking this misguided notion seriously is high, and it is a cost that falls disproportionately on the working class. Read the Working Paper, Full Employment: Don't Give It Up Without a Fight.
Mandatory overtime in U.S. economy
Over the past two decades, Americans have clocked more and more hours on the job, with many workers facing increases in forced overtime. A new EPI Briefing Paper, Time After Time—Mandatory overtime in the U.S. Economy, explores the toll this increase in hours has taken on workers, communities, and workplaces, as well as how state and federal legislation has attempted to address this issue.
Shared work, valued care
EPI's new study, Shared Work-Valued Care: New Norms for Organizing Market Work and Unpaid Care Work, examines practices in Japan, Australia, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy to gain insights into how work and care responsibilities might realistically be organized to better meet the needs of working families. Read this book's executive summary, introduction, and the press release online.
Making work pay with tax reform
The tax code would better serve working families if it integrated existing tax benefits into a Simplified Family Credit. Read the EPI Issue Brief, Making Work Pay With Tax Reform, for an explanation of how this credit would help low-wage workers and their families.
Last hired, first fired
When welfare reform was signed into law in 1996, the booming economy of the late 1990s helped many women find jobs after they left the welfare system. But these women's jobs are now at risk. The EPI Issue Brief, Last Hired, First Fired, explains why it will now be difficult for these workers to maintain their tenuous foothold in the labor market, and how those who lose their jobs will find a much-weakened safety net available to break their fall into poverty.
Unemployment insurance benefits calculator
Not only do unemployment insurance (UI) benefits vary widely depending on a worker's wage level and number of dependents, but every state is also allowed to set its own benefit levels, resulting in great disparities in generosity between states. EPI's web feature, the UI Calculator, estimates the weekly benefit allowance an unemployed worker receives in every state, provides the state's overall national rank, and compares it to the most and least generous states. The UI Calculator was featured on NPR's Morning Edition, which included an interview 
with EPI economist Jeff Wenger.
Unemployment insurance and family budgets
Listen to an audio transcript of an EPI press briefing on unemployment insurance and how it fails to protect laid-off workers and their families from poverty. The full report, Coming Up Short -- Current Unemployment Insurance Benefits Fail to Meet Basic Family Needs, is also available online.
Hardships faced by working families
Even during this period of national prosperity, 29% of working families in the United States with as many as three children under age 12 do not earn enough income to afford basic necessities. EPI's book, Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families, examines the cost of living in every community nationwide and determines separate "basic family budgets" -- the amount a family would need to earn to afford food, housing, child care, health insurance, transportation, and utilities -- for each community. An online supplement, the Family Budgets Calculator, generates an itemized budget for over 400 metropolitan areas by various family types. Read the press release online, and check back soon for an audio recording of the press conference.
Measuring family hardships
Many families that have left welfare rolls to join the workforce experience hardships even when they are successful in finding work. This means that millions of working families that once relied on welfare still often find themselves without enough food, sufficient access to health or child care, or affordable, decent housing. For an in-depth analysis, read EPI's Briefing Paper, When Work Just Isn't Enough, which examines these issues in detail.
EPI Issue Guides
Check out EPI's Issue Guides on Social Security and living wage ordinances, downloadable online resources that include data, charts, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on these issues.
Viewpoints on living standards and labor markets
Read opinion pieces written by EPI staff and associates dealing with living standards and labor markets in Viewpoints.
