EPI in the news

• Who’s your boss? Team Trump has a clear new answer

  These are welcome developments that will, on balance, accrue to the benefit of workers in the low-wage labor market. But it is important to point out that violations of labor law are all too common. A 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, found that low-wage workers lose billions of dollars per year due to minimum-wage violations alone. Still, the best solution is better enforcement of labor law, not muddying roles and responsibilities in economic relationships.

  Bloomberg | January 16, 2020
• One astounding chart shows how the death of the union has made economic inequality worse
  • “As unions have declined, its been an important contributor to the rise of inequality and wage stagnation to those but the highest paid workers,” said Heidi Shierholz, the policy director of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
  Markets Insider | January 16, 2020
• Trump plans to sign a partial trade deal with China. But will it end the uncertainty?

  The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that has blamed Chinese trade practices for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, questioned the deal’s effectiveness.

  Pittsburgh Post Gazette | January 16, 2020
• These teachers earning more under ‘right to work for less’

  For example, in December of 2012, Ross Eisenbrey, then vice president of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute, was highly critical of Michigan passing the law.

  “Right–to-work-for-less laws are about nothing more than weakening unions, lowering wages, and freeing corporate America to turn back the clock on employee rights and regulation of labor standards,” Eisenbrey wrote.

  Michigan Capitol Confidential | January 16, 2020
• Wage growth remained slow at year’s end
  • Wages are rising faster in states that increased the minimum wage than in states that did not. The Washington Post reported: “In the past week, minimum wages have risen in more than 20 states. Many of them are the result of increases that have been implemented in phases over the past few years, or indexed to inflation. Nearly 7 million workers began 2020 with higher wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank… A hot labor market helps, but policies that increase the minimum wage are a ‘really meaningful part of wage growth for low-wage workers,’ said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. ‘That is absolutely, undeniably true.’ …Our analysis of Labor Department data shows that before 2016, wages for lower-paid workers rose across the country at more or less the same pace. In 2017, things began to change. Wage growth in states that increased minimum wages began to accelerate. Over the past year, paychecks for those in bottom 25 percent of the workforce grew almost 1.5 times as fast as those in states where the minimum wage did not budge.” [Washington Post, 01/02/20]
  The Lexington Park Leader | January 16, 2020
• Colorado progressives have a new target in their pursuit of a tax overhaul: the rich. Here’s why.

  By one analysis, the wealthiest 1% of Americans captured a staggering 42% of all the income growth in the country between 2009 and 2015, and 59% of the income growth between 1973 and 2007. For context, from 1945 to 1973, the richest 1% accounted for just 5% of the nation’s income growth, according to the analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  The Colorado Sun | January 16, 2020
• Advocates propose $600m tax credits for working families

  Connecticut has been even more starkly divided between rich and poor, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

  New Haven Independent | January 16, 2020

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