EPI in the news

• Pandemic Teacher Shortages Imperil In-Person Schooling

  “It’s a disaster. Those kids who have already got the worst of Covid and its consequences are the ones who are going to face a larger lack of sufficient, and sufficiently qualified, teachers,” said Emma Garcia, an education economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington. “It’s going to have negative consequences immediately and it’s going to take them longer to be able to catch up.”

  New York Times | January 21, 2021
• Effort to Repeal Local Minimum Wage and Earned Sick Time Preemption Law

  Coronavirus has exacerbated many harsh and long-standing inequities in our state. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black and Latinx people are suffering disproportionately higher infection and death rates from COVID-19. Black workers also make up the majority of essential workers in several sectors, including food, agriculture, and industrial, according to a recent Economic Policy Institute report. These already vulnerable workers are frontline heroes who put their health and safety at risk to protect ours. Yet despite their incredible sacrifices, many of these workers earn minimum wage, without access to earned sick time, hazard pay, or death benefits.

  West Orlando News | January 21, 2021
• El plan de Biden para la economía, primero rescatar, luego reconstruir

  El rescate de la pandemia es urgente. La COVID deja ya 402,000 muertos ya y todo indica que no se ha llegado al punto de inflexión para la mejora. La de la COVID es una crisis económica que la BLS (Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales) dice que mantiene a más de 10 millones en el desempleo, aunque el daño es mayor. El Economic Policy Institute cifra en 26.8 millones de trabajadores los que carecen de empleo definitiva o temporalmente o con menos horas de trabajo y/o sueldo, algo más del 15% de la población en edad de trabajar.

  El Diario | January 21, 2021
• In The COVID Economy, Women Suffer More Job Losses Than Men

  Elise Gould is with the Economic Policy Institute. She said the pandemic didn’t necessarily create new problems for working women – it just revealed or magnified disparities that already existed.

  “It really mattered whether or not you had the ability to work from home, right? So if you have a higher paying job, you’re more likely to be able to work from home. If you’re White, you’re more likely to be able to work from home. So you’re sheltered from not only the health risks, but the economic shock of job loss,” she said.

  Boise State Public Radio | January 21, 2021
• Is the US ready to unify around a $15 minimum wage?

  In 1968, the minimum wage was more than 52% of the median wage for full-time US workers. By 2014, that ratio had declined to 37% percent. “If the minimum wage had kept pace with price increases since 1968, by 2014 it would have stood at $9.54—about 32 percent higher than its actual level,” notes a 2015 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

  Quartz | January 21, 2021
• Kamala Harris Makes History Yet There Are No Black Female Fortune 500 CEOs

  The 2019 Economic Policy Institute article “Black women’s labor market history reveals deep-seated race and gender discrimination” clearly refutes this notion. “Compared with other women in the United States, Black women have always had the highest levels of labor market participation regardless of age, marital status, or presence of children at home,” the article asserts. Obviously, Black women are and always have been well represented in the broader labor force. Where they’re typically not represented is in executive leadership.

  Forbes | January 21, 2021
• Opinion: Why Coloradans should be skeptical about gig companies’ promises

  In December, Uber’s CEO asked the governors of all 50 states to give the ride-hailing company’s workers priority for the coronavirus vaccine. The company sent a similar letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  The Colorado Sun | January 21, 2021

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