EPI in the news

• Uber and Lyft driver rights cause divide in labor movement

  Paywall. 

  Boston Globe | April 29, 2024
• The Weekly Closeout: Layoffs at Lululemon and Mango opens more stores

  The DOL will automatically update the threshold every three years using current wage data. The next adjustment would occur on July 1, 2027. The new rule would impact 4.3 million U.S. workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, or 3% of workers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

  Retail Dive | April 29, 2024
• Democrats are better for economy [letter]

  A recent study published by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, finds that the U.S. economy does better when a Democrat is in the White House than when a Republican is in charge (bit.ly/EPIstudy2024).

  The study looked at gross domestic product growth, job growth, inflation-adjusted wage growth, the unemployment rate and more. It found that the Democrats have had an economic advantage since at least 1949.

  The study also found that economic gains are “distributed substantially more equally” when a Democrat is in the White House.

  Lancaster Online | April 29, 2024
• Restaurants’ Challenge to Tip Wage Limits Returns to 5th Circuit

  But without the rule, tipped-wage earners—especially women and people of color—will lose out on an important safety net, The Economic Policy Institute, National Women’s Law Center and Restaurant Opportunities Center United, said in an amicus brief to the Fifth Circuit defending the policy. 

  Bloomberg Law | April 29, 2024
• US Department of Labor Hails Expanded Protections for H-2A Farmworkers in Santa Rosa

  The labor department’s wage and hour division found violations in 88% of the H-2A investigations it opened in the last five years. But most farm employers are never inspected by the agency because it lacks funding and staffing, according to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute.

  …

  Costa expects legal challenges to the new rule, but he said the Department of Labor has the authority to make these “modest and reasonable” changes to the H-2A program’s standards.

  “The law requires that the U.S. government protect labor standards in the H-2A program, so they have a lot of authority to set that program up,” said Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at Economic Policy Institute. “And I think it’s good to use that authority to have updated protections that reflect the reality for H-2A workers.”

  KQED | April 29, 2024
• A Great Week for American Workers

  Nonetheless, noncompetes are widespread in such occupations as hairdressing, hash slinging, and car parking—not to stop the spread of trade secrets, of course, but simply to limit competition and suppress wages. A 2019 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 30 percent of workplaces where the average yearly pay was less than $22,500 subjected all their employees to noncompetes.

  American Prospect | April 29, 2024
• Why so many men in the US have stopped working

  Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told Business Insider that a stagnant minimum wage and falling unionization rates have contributed to lower pay for some workers. The lower the pay, the less motivated some people might be to take a job.

  Additionally, rising incarceration rates in recent decades could be making it difficult for some men to find work once they return to society, Gould said. Incarcerated men aren’t counted in government labor force statistics, but when they are released, their struggles to find work would weigh on the male employment rate.

  Business Insider | April 29, 2024

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