| MAY 2003 |
Welfare proposals
hurt low-income mothers
In this slow-growth economy, low-income mothers
are being hit hard, and the nation's safety net is failing to pick up
the slack. While low-income mothers' economic fortunes improved during
the late 1990s job boom, their income has dropped with the onset of the
recession. Low-income mothers are now receiving less public assistance,
on average, and little help from the unemployment insurance system. EPI's
April 11 Issue Brief, Falling
Through the Safety Net by Jeff Chapman and Jared Bernstein,
describes how new welfare reform legislation proposed by Congress and
the Bush Administration threatens to create more barriers for these mothers
to receive the aid they need.
Comp time bills
favor employers
Proponents of the revisions to compensatory time regulations claim the
legislation would create a more flexible work environment, when in fact
such changes would result in workers facing increased overtime, a less
family-friendly work schedule, and less control over time off. For a complete
analysis of the bills before Congress that propose to revise comp time
regulations and why these changes won't benefit working families, check
out EPI Research Associate Lonnie Golden's Briefing Paper, Comp
Time Bills Off Target.
The benefits of
full employment
The 1990s boom taught a valuable lesson—that true full employment and
stable prices can go together. Moreover, the benefits of full employment
are far reaching: job quality improves and income and wages rise (particularly
for the lowest earners), while poverty, the welfare rolls, and crime decline.
Go to epinet.org to read the introduction to EPI's recent book, The
Benefits of Full Employment—When Markets Work for People, co-authored
by EPI Co-Director of Research Jared Bernstein.
Worker rights and
global growth
The arguments behind calls for the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund to promote worker rights are not only morally unassailable but make
good economic sense, as well. In fact, a growing body of evidence highlights
the economic benefits of these core labor standards, as explained in the
EPI Issue Brief, Rights
Make Might—Ensuring Workers' Rights as a Strategy for Economic Growth,
by EPI economists Josh Bivens and Christian Weller.
Retirement made
riskier
Both the Pension Security Act and the Treasury Department's proposed pension
changes would make the pension system less secure for workers. Neither
proposal will address three primary problems: lack of coverage for half
the U.S. workforce, inadequate pension income for low- and middle-income
workers, and an unacceptable risk of pension losses for all workers. Get
the full story in Sarah Harding and Christian Weller's Issue
Brief Retirement
Made Riskier.
EPI president addresses
business editors
Last year wage growth fell so low that that it lagged behind inflation,
producing real wage losses for workers up and down the pay scale. Add
to this the other bad news from this downturn—2.8 million private sector
jobs lost so far—and prospects for a turnaround on the jobs front look
dim. In fact, if these trends continue, President Bush will be the first
president since Hoover to preside over a decline in employment. This was
the message delivered to 200 journalists by EPI President Lawrence
Mishel in his keynote
address to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers at
their April 27 conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The
perils of Amtrak privatization
Is Amtrak a business or a public service? The difference is far from trivial.
It reflects fundamentally different approaches to preparing America's
transportation system for the 21st century. In Amtrak Privatization—The
Route to Failure (scheduled for release in June), author Elliott
Sclar makes the case that passenger rail service is crucial to the
nation for economic, environmental, and national security reasons, and
that the core of our national passenger rail policy should be to facilitate
investment in advanced technologies that will improve performance and
enhance its appeal as a transportation option.
- EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey's op-ed on the push by Bush Administration officials to exclude workers from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Capital Times (Wisconsin), and Desert News (Utah). A second op-ed on how employers can deny or delay overtime pay under proposed law changes appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
- EPI President Lawrence Mishel's article on the damage caused by President Bush's tax proposal appeared in the Detroit News.
- EPI Researcher Adam Hersh's op-ed on the U.S. trade deficit and the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune (Mo.) and Charleston Sunday Gazette Mail (W. Va.).
- With the April release of the EPI book, The Benefits of Full Employment, co-authors Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker spoke to several radio stations in cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.
- Time Magazine invited EPI Economist Max Sawicky to join their Board of Economists, a diverse group of economists who come together to discuss a single topic in depth. A partial transcript of their roundtable discussion, titled "Why Tax Our Patience?", appeared in the May edition of Time.
- EPI Economist Jared Bernstein provided an analysis of the April job losses to ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News.
- EPI International Policy Coordinator Tony Avirgan gave the keynote address during a privatization conference in Ankara, Turkey organized by the Petrochemical Workers' Union, Turkey's largest labor federation. Over 400 union presidents and officials and 10 members of parliament heard the March 28 speech. Avirgan also gave in-depth interviews on two television stations and to several newspapers and magazines in Istanbul.
EPI
launches new, upgraded web site
EPI launched its rebuilt web site in April, and while the general
content and layout remain the same, some important enhancements have been
made. Search engine results have been improved, and a search box now appears
on every page at the top of the left-side menu. The improved site now
allows users reading an EPI publication online to view links to related
articles by author and subject. The site will soon add an "e-mail
this page" feature, allowing users to easily send an EPI web page
to friends or colleagues. All site pages now also have a "printer-friendly
version" that can be generated by clicking a link at the top right
of any page. Finally, as the previous frames-based design has been eliminated,
all pages on the new site can be easily bookmarked and forwarded. Please
share your comments and suggestions by writing to webmaster@epinet.org.
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THE BENEFITS OF FULL EMPLOYMENT The 1990s boom taught a valuable lesson—that true full employment and stable prices can go together. Moreover, we learned that the benefits of full employment are far reaching. When everyone works, incomes and wages rise (particularly for the lowest earners), job quality improves, and poverty, the welfare roles, and crime fall. Read the introduction to EPI's new book, The Benefits of Full Employment — When Markets Work for People. |
By Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker
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