EPI in the news

• Democrats Poised to Propose Medicare for Those Who’ve Lost Health Coverage

  An estimated 9.2 million workers likely lost health coverage sponsored by employers over the past month as workplaces shuttered due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Spouses and family members are often covered by the same health plan, so millions more people have likely lost health coverage during this unprecedented public health crisis. Thanks to loss of income, even people who retain health insurance independent from employment are having trouble paying for it. As Truthout has reported, researchers estimate that 2 million people living without health insurance will be hospitalized for COVID-19, putting further strain on hospitals that have been overwhelmed by the crisis.

  Truthout | May 6, 2020
• Most US H-1B employers use programme to pay migrant workers well below market wages: Report

  “Among the top 30 H-1B employers are major US firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Google, Apple and Facebook. All of them take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill,” said the report released by the Economic Policy Institute.

  Authored by Daniel Costa and Ron Hira, the report titled “H-1B visas and prevailing wage levels” says 60 per cent of H-1B positions certified by the US Department of Labour (DOL) are assigned wage levels well below the local median wage for the occupation.

  The Tribune India | May 6, 2020
• 21M job losses, 16% unemployment would reflect just part of the economic damage from the coronavirus

  Lydia Boussour, senior U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, expects the report to show even more job losses — 28 million. She cites an Economic Policy Institute analysis noting that as many as 14 million Americans couldn’t file jobless claims because of swamped phone and computer systems.

  The USA Today | May 6, 2020
• How long should companies give hazard pay?

  “So if an employer was paying hazard pay and stopped providing it, there’s very little an employee could do,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

  stitute.

  Grocery store workers didn’t sign up for their jobs thinking they’d be putting themselves in danger. But owners didn’t expect it either.

  “You did not picture that you needed to pay your workers hazard pay because it was not on your radar that this could become an extremely dangerous job,” Shierholz said.

  Marketplace | May 6, 2020
• Mississippi drops test score requirements for ed schools to combat shortages

  The teacher shortage is also worse in higher-poverty schools, where there is a shortage of qualified teachers. An Economic Policy Institute report finds 66.2% of teachers in high-poverty schools have an educational background in the subject of their main assignment, compared to 72.5% of those in low-poverty schools.

  Education Dive | May 6, 2020
• The Absolute Minimum That Democrats Should Demand In the Next Stimulus

  In response to the coronavirus, Congress has passed a series of bills allocating more than $2 trillion to relief and recovery programs. However, these measures have been insufficient in scope and magnitude to address the severity of the economic and public health crisis we are experiencing. Further, lawmakers have failed to include key provisions that would address the needs of working families in this crisis. As a result of these policy missteps, the relief and recovery measures have not done nearly enough to mitigate the level of pain working people are experiencing or to ensure that the economy can get back on track after the shutdown period is over. It is critical that Congress correct its failures in future relief packages. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that without additional relief, the unemployment rate will average 16% in the third quarter of this year. As a point of comparison, the highest the unemployment rate reached in the Great Recession was 10%, and it reached that level for only one month. CBO projects that without additional relief, the unemployment rate will average 10.1% for the entire calendar year 2021.

  In These Times | May 6, 2020
• The Cost of Raising a Child in America

  Childcare and education for parents who have this expense account for 16% of the cost of raising a child, according to the USDA. The cost of childcare in the U.S. ranges from $5,436 to $24,243 annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Needless to say, the cost of childcare depends on where you live.1

  Investopedia | May 6, 2020

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