EPI in the news

• How many US workers went on major strikes in 2023? Labor stoppages set a record

  The bureau reported that a total of 458,900 U.S. workers went on 33 major work stoppages last year.

  That was an increase of 280% from 2022, when 120,600 workers were involved in 23 stoppages in total, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and was a return to pre-pandemic levels.

  Sacramento Bee | February 26, 2024
• Indiana shouldn’t cave to business demand for child labor

  Indiana House and Senate Republicans are passing new legislation to undo child labor protections. Senate Bill 146 and House Bill 1093 soon will head to Gov. Eric Holcomb for his signature.

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws; the aim is to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the U.S.

  Indy Star | February 26, 2024
• Georgia labor organizations dismayed as Legislature pushes anti-union bill

  However, a study from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute found that employers were charged with violating federal law, by using intimidation or threats, in 41.5% of cases between 2016 and 2017 when a company required a secret election. For organizing campaigns with more than 60 employees, that rate jumped to 54.4% of companies.

  Atlanta Journal Constitution | February 26, 2024
• UAW president Shawn Fain on labor’s comeback

  Cites EPI data on “Big Three” profits and declining real pay for auto workers before the strike.

  “From Hollywood actors and writers, to hotel and hospital workers, even neighborhood baristas, last year’s labor protests were like a dam bursting. From 2021 to 2023 the Big Three automakers made more than $100 billion in profits (according to the Economic Policy Institute), while average auto worker pay has fallen nearly twenty percent from pre-recession levels.”

  CBS Sunday Morning | February 26, 2024
• Older Americans are working longer. Some want to; others have to.

  Monique Morrissey, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, says that not being financially secure is likely the bigger factor in why we’re seeing more older people work for longer. In 2022, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances, almost 43 percent of people between 55 and 64 didn’t have a retirement savings account. In just the past few years, there has been a spate of viral headlines about older Americans continuing to work difficult jobs out of necessity — like an 82-year-old man working as a Walmart cashier until a GoFundMe raised $100,000, or the 89-year-old man who delivered pizza to pay his bills until he, too, received $20,000 thanks to a fundraising campaign.

  “It is really very much a tale of two types of older workers,” says Morrissey. “Half have it good and half have it bad.”

  VOX | February 26, 2024
• Middle class child care scholarships proposed in Minnesota legislature

  The Economic Policy Institute says the average Minnesota family with an infant and a 4-year-old is spending more than 37% of their income on child care. Some lawmakers are hoping state scholarships are a solution.

  FOX 9 KMSP | February 26, 2024
• Abolish the Tipped Minimum Wage

  As the Economic Policy Institute notes, “enforcement of this requirement is fraught with problems, and evidence suggests that tipped workers are subject to high rates of wage theft” across the country.

  Current Affairs | February 26, 2024

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