EPI in the news

• Elevating the ‘teacher pay penalty’ on the state and national agenda

  In its latest analysis released last week, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute calculates the “teacher pay penalty” in North Carolina at 25.3%, the seventh highest among the states. EPI’s statistical construct helps illuminate the daunting uphill climb facing North Carolina in attracting high-quality teachers for every public school classroom.

  As EPI defines it, the “penalty” is the gap between teachers’ salaries and the wages of comparable college-educated professionals. EPI, which describes itself as a think tank that focuses “on the economic condition of low- and middle-income Americans,” has tracked the wage gap for more than a decade and a half.

  EdNC | September 25, 2020
• Trump’s War on Workers

  During the 2016 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump famously pledged: “The jobs, incomes, and security of the American worker will always be my first priority.”

  The American Prospect | September 25, 2020
• Truth Test: PAC Ad Targets The President

  As for health coverage, about 12-million people have lost coverage since March, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  CBS 47 FOX 30 | September 25, 2020
• Ginsburg’s legacy as a warrior and heroine lives

  According to the Economic Policy Institute (www.epi.org), this would more than double the number of people without health insurance, and 1.2 million jobs would be lost — not just in health care but across the board. 

  The Paris Post-Intelligencer | September 25, 2020
• Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, here’s how the virus has changed our lives

  Between February and May, nearly 11 million jobs held by women have disappeared — eliminating a decade of job gains by women. By June, women regained 2.9 million positions, but mostly in the hospitality field, which remains insecure amid the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Chicago Tribune | September 25, 2020
• ‘Disgraceful’: Despite Mass Suffering, GOP Senators Prepare to Leave Town Without Approving Covid Relief

  “The executive memorandum’s main impact was to divert attention from the only thing that can provide the needed relief—increasing benefits through legislation. Congress must act, but Republicans in the Senate are blocking progress,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a blog post Thursday. “Blocking the extra $600 is terrible not just on humanitarian grounds, but also on economic grounds.”

  Common Dreams | September 25, 2020
• Millions kicked off unemployment, but Senate Republicans still won’t renew $600

  “Last week was the 27th straight week total initial [unemployment] claims were far greater than the worst week of the Great Recession” a decade ago, Economic Policy Institute senior analyst Heidi Shierholz said in tweets on joblessness. “We’ve hit a grim milestone. Most states provide 26 weeks of regular benefits. That means last week was the first week many workers had exhausted their regular state unemployment insurance.”

  People's Weekly World | September 25, 2020

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