Research from the Economic Policy Institute highlights the extent of the issues:
- If classified as an independent contractor, a typical construction worker loses over $16,729 each year in salary and benefits. That’s compared to their potential earnings and employment rights if they were classified as an employee.
JD Supra
February 5, 2024
The average teacher salary in Virginia was just over $61,000 last year, ranking at No. 22 nationally. The average weekly wage rate for Virginia teachers is the third least competitive rate in the country when compared to other similarly educated professions, according to an Economic Policy Institute report from last year.
Daily Press
February 5, 2024
Few states or municipal areas have raised the minimum wage for workers to the degree that California is poised to do for fast-food employees. Localities typically increase minimum wages by 12% to 15% a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which studies wage increases.
The Wall Street Journal
February 5, 2024
Black unemployment reached a record low of 4.7% in April 2023 and real wages – earnings adjusted for inflation – have risen. Between 2019 and 2022, the last two years of the Trump administration and the first two years of the Biden administration, real wage growth grew the most for workers in the bottom 10th-percentile, according to a March 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
…
Valerie Wilson, the director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, said part of voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy may come from sticker shock over high prices.
But those feelings, particularly in the Black community, may also be a response to long-standing racial disparities.
“Inequality isn’t a new thing, it hasn’t gone away,” Wilson said.
CNN
February 5, 2024
Research from the Economic Policy Institute highlights the extent of the issues:
- If classified as an independent contractor, a typical construction worker loses over $16,729 each year in salary and benefits. That’s compared to their potential earnings and employment rights if they were classified as an employee.
JD Supra
February 5, 2024
The average teacher salary in Virginia was just over $61,000 last year, ranking at No. 22 nationally. The average weekly wage rate for Virginia teachers is the third least competitive rate in the country when compared to other similarly educated professions, according to an Economic Policy Institute report from last year.
Daily Press
February 5, 2024
Few states or municipal areas have raised the minimum wage for workers to the degree that California is poised to do for fast-food employees. Localities typically increase minimum wages by 12% to 15% a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which studies wage increases.
The Wall Street Journal
February 5, 2024
Black unemployment reached a record low of 4.7% in April 2023 and real wages – earnings adjusted for inflation – have risen. Between 2019 and 2022, the last two years of the Trump administration and the first two years of the Biden administration, real wage growth grew the most for workers in the bottom 10th-percentile, according to a March 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
…
Valerie Wilson, the director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, said part of voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy may come from sticker shock over high prices.
But those feelings, particularly in the Black community, may also be a response to long-standing racial disparities.
“Inequality isn’t a new thing, it hasn’t gone away,” Wilson said.
CNN
February 5, 2024
Renter households with annual incomes below $30,000 had a record-low median residual income of $310 a month in 2022, the Harvard study found. For perspective, a single-person household in even the most affordable counties need about $2,000 a month for non-housing needs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 5, 2024
As another sign of dominating employer power, a 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the amount of company profits flowing to employees has been declining for decades.
Forbes
February 5, 2024
Though the uptick in the unemployment rate for Black men is something to monitor, it can be more indicative of an anomaly in December’s low data, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. January’s 5.3% rate comes basically in line with the average 2023 month, while December’s 4.6% was the lowest level seen in the year.
…
“A better economy absolutely can help historically disadvantaged groups more because they’re the ones that are often left out and are slow to recover in weaker times,” Gould said. “Full employment is definitely sort of a requirement for many historically marginalized groups to be able to see positive impact in the labor market, but it’s not the only thing.”
CNBC
February 5, 2024
“There is no other relationship in the labor market that is nearly this consistent and stable,” Valerie Wilson, the director of a program on race, ethnicity and the economy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told ABC News.
“Employment equity is essential to racial and economic justice because work is essential,” Wilson added. “It’s people’s ability to provide for themselves and their families.”
ABC News
February 5, 2024
Few states or municipal areas have raised the minimum wage for workers to the degree that California is poised to do for fast-food employees. Localities typically increase minimum wages by 12% to 15% a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which studies wage increases.
The Wall Street Journal
February 5, 2024
Black unemployment reached a record low of 4.7% in April 2023 and real wages – earnings adjusted for inflation – have risen. Between 2019 and 2022, the last two years of the Trump administration and the first two years of the Biden administration, real wage growth grew the most for workers in the bottom 10th-percentile, according to a March 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
…
Valerie Wilson, the director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, said part of voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy may come from sticker shock over high prices.
But those feelings, particularly in the Black community, may also be a response to long-standing racial disparities.
“Inequality isn’t a new thing, it hasn’t gone away,” Wilson said.
CNN
February 5, 2024
Renter households with annual incomes below $30,000 had a record-low median residual income of $310 a month in 2022, the Harvard study found. For perspective, a single-person household in even the most affordable counties need about $2,000 a month for non-housing needs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 5, 2024
As another sign of dominating employer power, a 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the amount of company profits flowing to employees has been declining for decades.
Forbes
February 5, 2024
Though the uptick in the unemployment rate for Black men is something to monitor, it can be more indicative of an anomaly in December’s low data, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. January’s 5.3% rate comes basically in line with the average 2023 month, while December’s 4.6% was the lowest level seen in the year.
…
“A better economy absolutely can help historically disadvantaged groups more because they’re the ones that are often left out and are slow to recover in weaker times,” Gould said. “Full employment is definitely sort of a requirement for many historically marginalized groups to be able to see positive impact in the labor market, but it’s not the only thing.”
CNBC
February 5, 2024
“There is no other relationship in the labor market that is nearly this consistent and stable,” Valerie Wilson, the director of a program on race, ethnicity and the economy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told ABC News.
“Employment equity is essential to racial and economic justice because work is essential,” Wilson added. “It’s people’s ability to provide for themselves and their families.”
ABC News
February 5, 2024
For example, the Economic Policy Institute reported that, based on 2016 data, only 41% of black families and 35% of Hispanic families had retirement account savings, compared with 68% of white, non-Hispanic families.
Investopedia
February 2, 2024
“In this report, we dispel some really persistent myths,” Claire Kovach, a senior research analyst for the Keystone Research Center, told reporters through a call with the press on Thursday.
“One of which is that only teenagers stand to benefit from a $15 minimum wage, which is far from reality shown in our data drawn from the US Census Bureau and the Economic Policy Institute.”
Keystone Newsroom
February 2, 2024
According to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, school vouchers do not improve the academic performance of low-income students despite Republican talking points. Instead of the legislature directing surplus funds to build new public schools across Tennessee, the bill would give private school vouchers to low-income children in poor neighborhoods.
The Tennessean
February 2, 2024
The Atlantic
February 2, 2024
Zoom out: Tens of thousands of people is indeed a lot of people, “but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people who get laid off every month even in a very strong labor market,” says Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Labor Department and the current president of the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
- There just aren’t any big concerning signs right now in the data, she says. “It’s just not there.”
Axios
February 2, 2024
Dollar figures are in 2022 dollars.Source: Economic Policy Institute analysis of Social Security Administration data
Bankrate
February 2, 2024
It is always a good sign when productivity is rising.
“When you think about what productivity is, it is the total amount of goods and services produced in our economy, divided by the total hours worked in the economy,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute.
Another way to think about it is the total amount of income the economy is generating per hour, she said.
“And when that goes up, that’s good for the economy,” she said. “That actually is what makes rising living standards over time possible.”
All sorts of different factors can contribute to productivity growth, she said. But “in general, over the long run, changes in productivity are really about changes in technology.”
Marketplace
February 2, 2024
According to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed the 2023 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), overall union membership went up even as overall union density went down. In other words, even though 191,000 more workers were represented by a union in 2023, the overall percentage of unionized workers dropped from 11.3% to 11.2%.
…
So if there’s that much interest in unionizing, why haven’t the numbers gone up? What’s holding those 60 million people back? As the EPI explained, “Decades of policy decisions have made it harder for workers to form unions and bargain collectively.” Over the years, various Republican administrations and state politicians have managed to chip away at important labor rights by embracing anti-worker policies, implementing “right-to-work” laws aimed at weakening unions, creating barriers or outright bans on public-sector workers’ rights to organize, and exploiting loopholes to get around our already rickety federal labor laws and safety regulations. (And it must also be said that Democrats have by and large allowed them to get away with it.)
Fast Company
February 2, 2024
First, to your question about how many and what sort of workers will benefit from these minimum wage increases: An excellent resource for understanding the basic facts of who will benefit from these minimum wage increases is the Economic Policy Institute.
Truthout
February 2, 2024
More than 30% of employers who use forced arbitration include class action waivers in their arbitration agreements, according to a 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Fast Company
February 2, 2024
(According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, 61% of the lowest-wage workers do not have access to paid sick days.)
Time Magazine
February 2, 2024
Meanwhile, a typical Black employee is paid about 23% less per hour than a typical white worker, and a typical white family has eight times as much wealth as their Black counterparts, according to an August report from the Economic Policy Institute.
USA Today
February 2, 2024