Josh Bivens, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said he thinks inflation would be lower today if the most recent coronavirus relief bill hadn’t passed. “But I also think we’d have created far fewer jobs over the past year, and people’s wages would be lower — their incomes would be lower.” Bivens added that the generous relief package gave workers the financial cushion and leverage to negotiate higher earnings or switch to better jobs, setting the stage for a massive reassessment of work in America.
Washington Post
November 12, 2021
Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz joined “Bloomberg Markets: Americas” with Guy Johnson and Taylor Riggs to discuss the U.S. October Payrolls number which blew away estimates.
Bloomberg TV
November 12, 2021
Heidi Shierholz and Michael Strain talked about the U.S. economy and President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.
C-SPAN
November 12, 2021
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute also criticized the study, suggesting that the data and methodology couldn’t distinguish between the effects of wage increases and other factors. It called the estimated job loss “implausibly large and well outside the range of existing research on the minimum wage.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
November 12, 2021
Cites EPI study on CEO pay.
The Intercept
November 12, 2021
While business owners have been a strong focus in discussions of equity, workers can’t be left out, advocates say.
“In the most recent federal proposals, every single one of them has this explicit and worthwhile focus on equity for entrepreneurs and giving formerly incarcerated folks privileged access…to get into the business but no one has really said anything about standards to ensure cannabis jobs are good jobs,” says David Cooper, senior economic analyst at the think tank Economic Policy Institute.
That’s a problem because “the vast majority of people that are going to interact with this industry in terms of their career are going to be folks working rank-and-file,” Cooper says.
Cooper co-authored a report published in September exploring the importance of protecting job quality and workers’ collective bargaining rights in cannabis.
Santa Fe Reporter
November 12, 2021
Unionized workers during the pandemic have been able to secure enhanced safety measures, premium pay, and a say in the terms of any future furloughs or workshare arrangements, according to a report published last year by the Economic Policy Institute.
Workers covered by a union contract also earn on average 11.2 percent more in wages than their non-unionized peers in the same industry and with similar education and experience, the report found.
The Hill
November 12, 2021
“Health and safety concerns are still number one on people’s minds,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told Yahoo Money. “More and more jobs are requiring showing up in person. That is still a major concern for many people who may live with vulnerable family members or have concerns about their own health.”
Yahoo Finance
November 12, 2021
Pelosi ought to be organizing economic history seminars for her caucus with people like Cecilia Rouse, Heather Boushey, and Jared Bernstein of the Council of Economic Advisers, and outside experts like Damon Silvers of the AFL-CIO and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, and a whole bunch of people who can make sure that House Democrats know this history.
New Republic
November 12, 2021
More than half of all workers who vote to form a union are still without a collective bargaining agreement a year later, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank.
Associated Press
November 12, 2021
“With these welcome gains on top of significant improvements early in the summer, the recovery appears to be getting back on track,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “That said, significant job shortfalls remain, especially in leisure and hospitality as well as both private and public sector education employment.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group
November 12, 2021
The Illinois Economic Policy Institute’s report, which comes just days after the passage of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, detailed I-290’s current infrastructure needs and examined the safety concerns, congestion problems and economic impact project.
The Chicago Sun Times
November 12, 2021
Caroline Hyde, Romaine Bostick & Taylor Riggs bring the news and analysis you may have missed after the closing bell on Wall Street. Today’s show tackles the jobs report Guests Today: Elise Gould of Economic Policy Institute, Christian Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union.
Bloomberg TV
November 10, 2021
Meanwhile, the United States, like all nations, is struggling to recover from job losses, income losses and business losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Economic Policy Institute reported that a $2 trillion-dollar investment in clean energy, energy efficiency, and infrastructure in various states would help economies recover and rebuild in ways that do not exacerbate climate change. Clean-energy investments would generate, for example:
Florida Phoenix
November 5, 2021
Myth No. 1: the productivity/pay gap. Progressives, including at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, assert that the gap between productivity and inflation-adjusted hourly compensation has been widening since the mid-1970s. However, this calculation deflates hourly compensation with the consumer price index, which long has been recognized as upwardly biased. Doing so weighs misleadingly on real hourly compensation. The gap narrows using the personal consumption expenditures deflator, a more accurate measure of consumer prices.
Barron’s
November 5, 2021
At the same time, anywhere from 36 million to 60 million Americans are subject to noncompete agreements, according to an Economic Policy Institute estimate. Noncompete agreements prohibit employees from going to work for a competitor within a certain time frame after leaving their job. Specific circumstances vary by contract, but generally, a noncompete is still valid even if an employee is fired from their job.
The Washington Examiner
November 5, 2021
“Some places have gone to try out what it means to actually be a high-road employer,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said. “Reduced turnover, higher productivity, higher morale — through all that stuff you recoup the cost of the increased pay.”
VOX
November 5, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute argues that the “unceasing growth of wage inequality that undercuts wage growth for the bottom 90% reaffirms the need to place generating robust wage growth for the vast majority and worker power at the center of economic policymaking.”
The Collegian
November 5, 2021
The average cost of infant care in South Carolina is $584 per month, which is less than half of the average monthly cost in Greenville County, according to the Economic Policy Institute report.
Gannett
November 5, 2021
To Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, these targeted tactics feel like punching down in an already unfair fight. Although a 2017 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that 48% of nonunionized Americans “would join a union tomorrow” and a separate 2020 Gallup poll found 65% of Americans favor unions, union membership is on the decline.
Morning Brew
November 5, 2021
Meanwhile, the United States, like all nations, is struggling to recover from job losses, income losses and business losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Economic Policy Institute reported that a $2 trillion-dollar investment in clean energy, energy efficiency, and infrastructure in various states would help economies recover and rebuild in ways that do not exacerbate climate change. Clean-energy investments would generate, for example.
NC Policy Watch
November 5, 2021
“When the history books look back on this, they’re going to realize that this was a pivotal moment for women in the U.S. economy because now there was enough of an understanding of all of the issues that women have faced fully participating in the labor force,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told Healthcare Dive.
Healthcare Dive
November 5, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute reports the average annual cost of infant care in the state is $9,480 — more than the cost of a year of in-state, four-year college tuition.
WRAL.com
November 5, 2021
Child care costs vary widely from state to state. In Georgia, it costs $8,530 on average annually to enroll an infant in child care, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. In Massachusetts, the average annual cost for infant child care is $20,913.
Healthcare Dive
November 5, 2021
Even before the pandemic, many providers struggled to meet basic needs. Child care workers make, on average, less than $14 an hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute, far less than they can earn working at Target, Starbucks or in many fast food restaurants. Workers also tend to lack benefits like health insurance, family leave and paid sick leave
The Hechinger Report
November 5, 2021
As a result, providers often end up passing costs along to parents via higher tuition rates, risking pricing out all but the highest earners. By the time the pandemic hit, the average cost of child care for toddlers had topped $8,500 a year in Arizona, according to the Economic Policy Institute, while infant care averaged nearly $11,000 annually. That’s more than base tuition at an in-state college.
Arizona Public Media
November 5, 2021
Julia Wolfe, Janelle Jones, and David Cooper, “‘Fair workweek’ laws help more than 1.8 million workers” (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2018), available at https://www.epi.org/publication/fair-workweek-laws-help-more-than-1-8-million-workers/. David Cooper and Lawrence Mishel, “Calls to establish a regionally adjusted federal minimum wage are dangerously misguided,” Economic Policy Institute, April 5, 2021, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/calls-to-establish-a-regionally-adjusted-federal-minimum-wage-are-dangerously-misguided/.
Center for American Progress
November 5, 2021
MAX B. SAWICKY is a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He has worked at the Economic Policy Institute and the Government Accountability Office, and has written for numerous progressive outlets.
In These Times
November 5, 2021
Features Josh discussing the debt ceiling.
WPFW
November 5, 2021