According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, union membership peaked in 1985, when nearly 1 in 3 U.S. workers were under a union contract compared to 2022, where only around 1 in 10 U.S. workers were part of a union.
Fox 43
September 22, 2023
Another dynamic driving the UAW’s wage asks? Skyrocketing CEO pay.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra, the highest-paid chief executive among the Big Three, made nearly $29 million in 2022. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that this is 362 times the median GM employee’s paycheck.
NPR
September 22, 2023
Credit conditions could also spark a recession if the Fed tightens monetary policy beyond what the labor market has already sustained, said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Labor Department who’s now the president of the Economic Policy Institute.
“Right now, we’re in the sweet spot,” she said. “If we have a recession next year it will be a policy failure because of the Fed moving too fast.”
Politico Pro
September 22, 2023
Nursing assistants like her, who do everything from daily chores to physically taxing tasks, are often stretched to their limits. Eight in ten residential long-term care workers are women, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. The industry relies on minorities and immigrants, too: Black women make up 22 percent of this industry compared with 6.5 percent of the overall workforce, and immigrant women about 13 percent compared with 7 percent. The median salary is $15.22 per hour, 25 percent lower than that of the overall workforce.
Think Global Health
September 22, 2023
David Cooper, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning economic think tank, is in favor of the change, arguing that the policy has “significant racial and gender parity implications” because it would raise pay for a workforce that has been historically disadvantaged.
The Eater
September 22, 2023
Wage theft amounts to about $60 billion a year according to reports by the Economic Policy Institute. Despite exposés, corporations regularly rip-off low-wage workers.
Counterpunch
September 22, 2023
Nevertheless, polls continue to show an excruciatingly close race between Biden and Trump (Trump 47-Biden 46 in the late-August CNN poll; Biden 44-Trump 42 in the early September Morning Consult poll). Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, told the New York Times, “I’ve never seen this big of a disconnect between how the economy is actually doing and key polling results about what people think is going on.”
The Messenger
September 22, 2023
Autoworker take-homes have been doing even worse. Their real wages have actually been sinking over recent years. Between 2008 and July 2023, analysts at the Economic Policy Institute reported earlier this week, real average hourly earnings for U.S. auto manufacturing workers fell 19.3 percent.
Inequality.org
September 22, 2023
According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, profits at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis increased 92% from 2013 to 2022, totaling $250 billion. Forecasts for 2023 expect more than $32 billion in additional profits.
Michigan Advance
September 22, 2023
Profits at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis almost doubled between 2013 and 2022, totaling $250 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Over the past four years of the now-expired UAW contract, vehicle prices increased 30% and CEO pay increased 40% while worker pay increased 6%.
Spectrum News 1
September 22, 2023
The number of workers involved in major work stoppages hit the highest levels in decades in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in 2018 and 2019. After subsiding during the pandemic, the number of workers who went on strike grew by 50% in 2022, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN Business
September 22, 2023
Practically speaking, flat funding represents a budget cut because of inflation, as well as an expanding payroll due to cost-of-living adjustments and merit raises, said Celine McNicholas, general counsel and director of policy and governmental affairs at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“But it’s not so much a question of just keeping the agency functioning and avoiding furloughs,” said McNicholas, who served as an NLRB official during the Obama administration. “If you want the agency to function the way the Biden administration wants—to be a bright spot for labor—then it absolutely needs a funding increase.”
Bloomberg Law
September 22, 2023
Profits at the Big Three collectively rose by 92 percent, and CEO compensation jumped 40 percent from 2013 to 2022, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute released last week.
Inflation has eaten into auto manufacturing workers’ average hourly wages, which dropped 19.3 percent in real dollars since 2008, the left-leaning think tank found.
The Hill
September 21, 2023
The United Auto Workers strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis is now on its fourth day and it looks like labor actions are ramping up. Unifor, the union that represents autoworkers in Canada, is preparing to also go on strike against Ford starting at midnight. A major issue for striking workers, whether it’s in the auto or entertainment industry: how much top execs are getting paid. Adjusting for inflation, the typical worker’s pay has grown by just 18% since the late seventies. Compare that to the CEOs for America’s top 300 largest companies. Their compensation went up by more than 1,400%. That’s according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
CNN 5 Things podcast
September 19, 2023
According to a 2020 Economic Policy Institute report, employers were charged with illegally firing workers in almost 20 percent of union elections.
Newsweek
September 19, 2023
Jennifer Sherer, director of the state worker power initiative for the Economic Policy Institute, said in an interview with Modern Retail that the deal creates a new model for other states to look at. The nine-member Fast Food Council will include two industry representatives, two franchisees, two employees, two employee advocates and a neutral chairperson, as well as non-voting state experts.
“It’s creating a new structure where workers from the industry themselves, along with government officials and industry representatives, are going to sit down with the data and experiences and each year have the ability to recommend new adjustments for wages,” she said.
Modern Retail
September 19, 2023
A report from the Economic Policy Institute noted that even if every penny of a $15 minimum wage was directed to price increases — rather than made up through reduced profits or improved productivity and streamlining — it would only boost prices by less than 0.5%. That is less than 100 times the rate of inflation the past two years, according to EPI.
GO Banking Rates
September 19, 2023
In another sign of resilience, the employment-population ratio among 25-54 year-olds is close to record levels, according to economist Elise Gould of think-tank the Economic Policy Institute.
At 80.9 percent, the figure is higher than it was pre-pandemic, above the level right before the Great Recession around 2008, and just slightly below the record level in 2000.
“I think that is showing a lot of strength,” she said.
AFP
September 19, 2023
According to an analysis last year by the Economic Policy Institute, the heads of the top 350 publicly traded companies earned annual incomes that were on average 399 times greater than a typical worker in 2021, up from 59-to-1 in 1989. This means that some executives’ pay is significantly greater than 399 times their employee’s pay. In fact, the heads of 22 S&P 500 companies earn at least 1,000 times more than what their typical workers take home. (See if some of these companies are also among the companies planning the biggest mass layoffs this year.)
24/7 Wall St.
September 18, 2023
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, union membership peaked in 1985, when nearly 1 in 3 U.S. workers were under a union contract compared to 2022, where only around 1 in 10 U.S. workers were part of a union.
Fox 43
September 18, 2023
Nursing assistants like her, who do everything from daily chores to physically taxing tasks, are often stretched to their limits. Eight in ten residential long-term care workers are women, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. The industry relies on minorities and immigrants, too: Black women make up 22 percent of this industry compared with 6.5 percent of the overall workforce, and immigrant women about 13 percent compared with 7 percent. The median salary is $15.22 per hour, 25 percent lower than that of the overall workforce.
Think Global Health
September 18, 2023
David Cooper, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning economic think tank, is in favor of the change, arguing that the policy has “significant racial and gender parity implications” because it would raise pay for a workforce that has been historically disadvantaged.
The Eater
September 18, 2023
Wage theft amounts to about $60 billion a year according to reports by the Economic Policy Institute. Despite exposés, corporations regularly rip-off low-wage workers.
Counterpunch
September 18, 2023
Nevertheless, polls continue to show an excruciatingly close race between Biden and Trump (Trump 47-Biden 46 in the late-August CNN poll; Biden 44-Trump 42 in the early September Morning Consult poll). Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, told the New York Times, “I’ve never seen this big of a disconnect between how the economy is actually doing and key polling results about what people think is going on.”
The Messenger
September 18, 2023
Autoworker take-homes have been doing even worse. Their real wages have actually been sinking over recent years. Between 2008 and July 2023, analysts at the Economic Policy Institute reported earlier this week, real average hourly earnings for U.S. auto manufacturing workers fell 19.3 percent.
Inequality.org
September 18, 2023
According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, profits at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis increased 92% from 2013 to 2022, totaling $250 billion. Forecasts for 2023 expect more than $32 billion in additional profits.
Michigan Advance
September 18, 2023
Profits at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis almost doubled between 2013 and 2022, totaling $250 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Over the past four years of the now-expired UAW contract, vehicle prices increased 30% and CEO pay increased 40% while worker pay increased 6%.
Spectrum News 1
September 18, 2023
The number of workers involved in major work stoppages hit the highest levels in decades in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in 2018 and 2019. After subsiding during the pandemic, the number of workers who went on strike grew by 50% in 2022, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN Business
September 18, 2023
Practically speaking, flat funding represents a budget cut because of inflation, as well as an expanding payroll due to cost-of-living adjustments and merit raises, said Celine McNicholas, general counsel and director of policy and governmental affairs at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“But it’s not so much a question of just keeping the agency functioning and avoiding furloughs,” said McNicholas, who served as an NLRB official during the Obama administration. “If you want the agency to function the way the Biden administration wants—to be a bright spot for labor—then it absolutely needs a funding increase.”
Bloomberg Law
September 18, 2023