EPI in the news

• Twin Cities chefs are leaving restaurants to find balance — but they’re still cooking

  “It’s not that the industry is becoming smaller month after month,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “Some people are switching and trying to find a better match in that field.”

   
  StarTribune | January 14, 2022
• California’s overtime pay for farmworkers seen as an example for other states

  Only a handful of states, including California and Washington, have granted farmworkers the right to overtime pay. In the Golden State, agricultural industry experts had predicted the pay would bankrupt farms. However, the number of businesses in the state actually increased during the state’s rollout that began in 2016. “If it can work here, it can work anywhere,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute

  Los Angeles Times | January 14, 2022
• Meet a Kroger’s King Soopers worker who’s striking for the first time: ‘I think people are realizing they’re worth more’

  The strike began on Wednesday, and workers will be out picketing until February 2. It’s the latest group of workers to take to the picket line as thousands across the country fight for better conditions — a moment that the labor movement is hoping to build upon. Despite union approval ratings being at their highest since 1965, union membership has been declining for decades, which the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute attributes to increasingly weakened labor laws that allow employers to host mandatory anti-union meetings and replace striking workers.

  Business Insider | January 14, 2022
• Teens Driving 18-Wheelers Among Efforts to Help Supply Chain

  Long-distance truck drivers are largely paid by the mile, not the hour, “and they end up working a really tremendous amount of uncompensated hours during the time that they’re in detention,” said Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. These new studies could help to create a record to start addressing the problem, she said.

  Bloomberg Government | January 14, 2022
• Spillover From Biden’s $15 Contractor Wage Hike? Experts Differ

  While the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates the rule will raise wages for up to 390,000 federal contractors, roughly half of whom are women or people of color, some labor market observers said spillover effects could be limited because the bulk of workers on federal contracts are not paid minimum wages.

  Bloomberg Law | January 14, 2022
• Black Americans only major group to see higher unemployment rates in December

  And even with an elevated 10.6 million job openings, questions remain about how labor market disparities particularly disadvantage Black women. The Economic Policy Institute has noted that the demographic is disproportionately represented in lower-wage, higher-contact industries like leisure and hospitality that tend to be more sensitive to waves of the virus.

   
  Yahoo Finance | January 14, 2022
• Black Americans were the only US group to see unemployment tick up in December

  “Many people put too much weight on the drop in November,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

  Quartz | January 14, 2022

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