EPI in the news

• Here’s What Health Care Costs In 2018. It’s Not Pretty.

   

  Employers cover the majority of this expense, but people end up paying for the benefit in different ways as rates continue to rise: The expense is passed along through higher cost sharing for visits and hospitalizations, and more of their compensation is coming in the form of health insurance instead of wages. “Rapid growth in the cost of US health care has put sustained downward pressure on wages and incomes,” a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal nonprofit, found.

  Buzzfeed | October 16, 2018
• Here’s How Much Soaring Health Care Prices Have Cost American Workers

   

  It’s not news that health care costs have been rising for years, but a new report from Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute puts some eye-opening numbers on just how much the rising price of health care has cost American workers.

  Fiscal Times | October 16, 2018
• Teachers care for others’ kids but struggle to look after their own

   

  In the United States, teachers are hit particularly hard by this lack because roughly 76% of public school teachers are women, and they’re underpaid. In 2015, their weekly wages were roughly 17% lower than those of comparable workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNN | October 16, 2018
• Rising health-care costs are eating away at your wages and you may not even realize it

   

  Employer-sponsored insurance premiums have jumped dramatically in the last 20 years, from almost $6,000 in 1999 to more than $18,000 in 2016, according to a report released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive Washington-based economic think tank. Those health-care expenses accounted for 51.7% of the average annual earnings for the bottom 90% of the workforce in 2016, compared to 25.6% in 1999.

  Martketwatch | October 16, 2018
• With Health Care Eating Into Americans’ Paychecks, Work Doesn’t Mean Financial Security

  But a new report, released by the Economic Policy Institute the same day Trump’s op-ed went live, undercuts many of the president’s arguments. Healthcare costs are rising, which drives up premiums for employer-sponsored, private insurance plans. That, in turn, helps keep incomes and wages low. Josh Bivens, EPI’s director of research, concluded that the total cost of a family insurance plan provided by a member’s employer more than tripled between 1999 and 2016, jumping from an average of $5,791 to $18,142. For families whose earning fell in the bottom 90 percent, total premium costs as a share of their earnings doubled over the same period, from 25.6 to 51.7 percent.

  New York Magazine | October 16, 2018
• D.C. Council approves initial vote to repeal Initiative 77, the tipped hourly wage increase

  Ramirez also noted that several studies, including, most recently, a study from the Economic Policy Institute released last month, have shown that tipped workers fare better in cities that have passed “one fair wage” initiatives or laws, and that the restaurant industry in those cities has continued to thrive. “Every study that’s been done to study the effects of an increased minimum wage for tipped workers — EPI, ROC did a study, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute — they’ve all looked at the data and come to the same conclusion: It is beneficial to both workers and business,” she said. “In the age of ‘alternative facts,’ it’s unfortunate that our mayor and elected officials aren’t looking at the real facts to make real policy decisions.”

  Metro Weekly | October 5, 2018
• D.C. Council Repeals Wage Bump for Tipped Workers, Will of Voters Be Damned

  A September report by the Economic Policy Institute used American Community Survey data to analyze the effects of eliminating or beginning to phase out the tip credit in both cities (in Seattle’s case, it used data for the Seattle metropolitan area). The report found that the restaurant sector in both areas continued to grow while take-home earnings for tipped workers actually shot up.

   

  The American Prospect | October 5, 2018

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