His career also includes time as executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Living Standards Program and a stint as deputy chief economist at the Department of Labor under the Clinton administration.
Executive Gov
June 16, 2023
Workers in the US have an estimated $50bn-plus stolen from them every year, according to the Economic Policy Institute, surpassing all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. The majority of these stolen wages are never recovered by workers.
The Guardian
June 16, 2023
To back their theory, Edwards and other progressive economists point to evidence from sources like the Kansas City Federal Reserve, which found in a January study that corporate profit hikes accounted for more than half of the inflation in 2021. The Economic Policy Institute came to a similar conclusion about the causes of inflation in an April 2022 article. And now, Edwards is warning that greedflation may have set the U.S. up for a “deeper” and “longer” recession than even the most bearish of investors are anticipating.
Fortune
June 16, 2023
However, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the economic fate of Black women in America provides compelling evidence of the enduring impact of gender and race discrimination on workers and families.
Researchers at the EPI found that employer practices and government policies have historically disadvantaged Black women compared to white women and men, leading to unfavorable labor market positions.
The Washington Informer
June 16, 2023
Childcare advocates argue the money is needed to help workers such as nurses, first-responders, and childcare workers themselves who are struggling to pay childcare costs that, in recent years, has averaged about $10,000 annually in Ohio, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Cleveland.com
June 16, 2023
According to an analysis published by the Economic Policy Institute, corporate profits replaced unit labor costs as the largest contributor to unit price growth in the nonfinancial corporate sector from the second quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021, when compared with historical averages from 1979-2019.
Yahoo Finance
June 16, 2023
The amended proposal from Rep. Ben Collings, D-Portland, would boost the minimum wage from the current mark of $13.80 to $15 starting in 2024 with annual cost-of-living increase. The current mark was set in a 2016 referendum that also includes indexing, and Maine’s minimum wage is eighth-highest among states, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Bangor Daily News
June 16, 2023
Bernstein, who holds a Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University, was a musician and social worker in New York City before moving to Washington in the early 1990s to join the Economic Policy Institute. He was later tapped to be the deputy chief economist at the Labor Department under former Secretary Robert Reich during former President Bill Clinton’s second term.
Politico
June 16, 2023
As Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, pointed out last year, wage increases didn’t keep pace with inflation. His analysis determined that the rise of inflation had “not been driven” by tight labor markets pushing up wages.
News Nation Now
June 16, 2023
In 2015, the Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states were 3.1% lower than in states without the laws (after accounting for cost of living).
Capital & Main
June 16, 2023
“I would not be an economist today without Bill Spriggs,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute.
Dr. Wilson was taking a break from graduate school and considering leaving the field altogether when one of her professors recommended her for a job working for Dr. Spriggs at the National Urban League. He helped restore her passion for economics by showing her an approach to the work that was less theoretical and more focused on the real world, she said. After two years at the Urban League, she told Dr. Spriggs that she was going back to graduate school.
His response: “We need you in the profession.”
New York Times
June 16, 2023
Paywall. Features interview with Daniel Costa
Law360
June 16, 2023
Additionally, the report filed by Lee Fang claims cites The Economic Policy Institute has documented widespread abuse of the program, including underpayment of foreign workers and companies hiring H-1B workers instead of qualified candidates from within the country.
Business Today
June 16, 2023
Between 2019 and 2022, hourly wages increased 9% for workers in the bottom 10th percentile, the largest percentage increase of any income group, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But that only equates to an extra $1.04 per hour, far less than the 25% increase in U.S. median rents between January 2021 and June 2022.
Crain's Cleveland Business
June 16, 2023
An Economic Policy Institute analysis found that in 2022, the average white employee made $34.49 an hour, while the average Black employee made $25.61 — a difference of $8.88, or nearly 30%. This can mean the difference between having food on the table, emergency savings money, a 401(k), and student loan debt paid, or not.
…
Plus, Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy, points out, it’s a huge burden for an individual to prove discrimination. “The system currently is set up in a way that you have to have the experience of discrimination before anything happens,” she said, “as opposed to us putting more resources and energy into preventing it or limiting opportunities for it to happen in the first place.”
Capital B
June 16, 2023
Fueling the merger resistance was a policy memo by the Economic Policy Institute that claimed grocery store workers could lose $330 million annually in pay if the deal goes through.
Supermarket News
June 16, 2023
Georgia’s Black unemployment rate sank to a low of 5.4% during the last quarter of fiscal year 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
Capital B Atlanta
June 16, 2023
Congress should also raise the wage cap on Social Security payroll taxes. Currently, those CEOs pay no payroll taxes into the system on anything they make above $160,200. The Economic Policy Institute estimates this cap has cost the Social Security trust fund $1.4 trillion.
The Hill
June 16, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute:
- More than two million farm workers were deemed “essential” during the pandemic in order to sustain food supply chains, but they earned an average of $14.62 an hour.
- The wage paid to most farm workers with H-2A visas was even lower at a national average of $13.68 per hour and the lowest in Georgia and Florida at $11.71.
ABC Action News
June 16, 2023
Financial concerns have pushed some workers — 46% — to retire later than expected to meet income or savings needs to pay for basic expenses, according to Cerulli’s research.
Yet many older workers ages 50 through 70 face difficult working conditions, recent research from the Economic Policy Institute found.
CNBC
June 16, 2023
Despite the drumbeat of layoff announcements in industries like high-tech and financial services, the job market for young graduates is healthy. According to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute the unemployment rate for workers ages 16 to 24 is 7.5% — the lowest in 70 years — as of March 2023.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
June 16, 2023
ASCOE: I wanted to ask you, what made William Spriggs – known as Bill to his friends – so remarkable as an economist and as a person?
WILSON: I think as an economist, what made him so remarkable was his ability to really translate economic concepts into human issues and really doing economics with a purpose and a reason of improving lives. And I think that then, you know, sort of speaks volumes to who he was as a person and just his passion and commitment to making life better for the average worker and making life better for Black Americans specifically.
NPR Weekend Edition
June 16, 2023
Between 2019 and 2022, the lowest 10 percent of wage earners nationally saw their inflation-adjusted hourly wage grow by 9 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That’s the fastest wage growth for the lowest-wage workers since 1979.
Wisconsin Public Radio
June 16, 2023
The Department of Labor found hundreds of workplaces in violation of these laws that protect minors, affecting nearly 4,000 kids. Fast food restaurants McDonald’s, Subway and Dunkin Donuts had the most violations, according to 2022 data.
“Many franchisees across many states have been investigated,” said Nina Mast with the Economic Policy Institute. She said fast food restaurants have been dinged for working kids too many hours and in violation of protections against hazardous work.
“Particularly around the use of manual deep fat fryers and other hazardous equipment in the fast food industry,” Mast added.
Mast’s research found that in the last two years, at least ten states have passed or have pushed looser child labor laws.
Marketplace
June 16, 2023
The national Economic Policy Institute ranks Wisconsin 20th in the nation for most expensive infant care, finding that the average Wisconsin family with two children would have to spend about a third of their annual income on child care.
Wisconsin Public Radio
June 16, 2023
Bills that aim to weaken child labor laws have been introduced or passed in 10 states over the last two years, according to a study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute released in March.
ABC News
June 16, 2023
You may have read about how Americans, on average, are coming up short when it comes to building their retirement nest eggs. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, the median retirement savings for all working-age households is $95,776.
GO Banking Rates
June 16, 2023
Larry Mishel, who was a colleague of Bill’s when both worked at the Economic Policy Institute, was a friend since they were in graduate school together at Madison beginning in the late 1970s. Bill was the only Black student in their entering cohort. Larry has written:
…
But the thing that made Bill Spriggs most special, from my experience, was his personal sweetness and generosity blended with political toughness and commitment. Valerie Wilson, who directs EPI’s much acclaimed Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, has written:
American Prospect
June 15, 2023