EPI in the news

• Dear MacKenzie and Dan: Advice for America’s Biggest Donors

  In recent years, though, this has started to change, with some foundations supporting a dynamic new labor movement of national, state and local nonprofit groups that are working to boost wages and benefits of low-income workers. 

  I’m talking about organizing groups like the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and Jobs With Justice, as well as policy groups like the National Employment Law Project and the Economic Policy Institute. This movement has amply demonstrated its impact in recent years; 30 states and 40 municipalities have raised their minimum wage since 2014. 

  Inside Philanthropy | May 27, 2022
• Biden Has a Plan to Unite the Asia-Pacific on Supply Chain and Climate. Just Don’t Expect It to Help Your Business

  Over the same 20-year period, NAFTA contributed to the loss of approximately four million U.S. jobs, according to Robert E. Scott, director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Seven years after the agreement, in 2001, Scott assessed the job losses at around 766,000; he issued another assessment in 2014, showing job losses totaling 3.2 million between 2001 and 2013.

  Inc. | May 27, 2022
• Roaming Charges: The End of the Innocents

  According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, rising inequality over the last four decades has reduced economic growth in the US. Since 1979, income share has risen for the top 10% but fallen for the rest. By 2018, the top 1% were securing 16.4% of pre-tax and benefits income, up from 8.9% in 1979. The top 1% were saving 30.6% of their income, over 60 times as much as the bottom fifth of household. This reduction in spending put constraints overall economic growth.

  Counterpunch | May 27, 2022
• Why this is a critical moment for American workers to push for wage gains

  Real wage growth across the wage distribution is down, and it is the middle-income workers that are in a worse position than they were pre-pandemic — the lowest-wage workers, by contrast, while struggling with inflation have seen the biggest wage gains. “They are getting hit really hard by this,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, which focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income Americans.

  CNBC | May 27, 2022
• Is A Recession Coming In The U.S.? Here’s What Experts Say.

  Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, said most of the anxiety is being driven by the “relative newness of the inflation we’ve seen over the past year.” “The worry is that to rein it in and return it to more-normal levels might require a lot of policy dexterity, and, if policymakers can’t pull this off, this might lead to a recession,” Bivens told HuffPost.

   
  The Huffington Post | May 27, 2022
• Rising Risk of Recession Creates New Headache for Biden

  Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said Mr. Biden’s proposed economic policies would …(paywall).

  The Wall Street Journal | May 27, 2022
• Several States Are Taking the Lead on Restoring Overtime Pay

  But labor advocates say there is scant evidence to support such a grim forecast. At a recent hearing, EPI director of immigration law and policy research Daniel Costa pointed to the impact of making farmworkers in California eligible for overtime to encourage the establishment of similar protections in New York. There is “virtually no credible evidence” that overtime pay for farmworkers “will hurt the industry or slash profits dramatically,” Costa testified. 

  Capital and Main | May 27, 2022

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