EPI in the news

• We’re Talking About the Minimum Wage All Wrong

  But the entire framing around lost jobs—which centers the conversation around what would be the worst-case scenario for workers, rather than the benefit that the large majority would get from higher wages—is part of the issue. In a new report out today, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute argues that “minimum wage proposals are being evaluated as worthwhile only if researchers can prove that there will be no job loss and no negative costs of the policy for low-wage workers,” which is a standard that is “distinctly different than the conversations evaluating every other type of economic policy.” According to EPI, even the typical image of “job loss”—in which a worker who was adversely affected would have no earnings for the year—is not entirely accurate. “The more likely scenario,” the report’s authors write, “is that what is lost are job hours, and that these lost hours are spread among the affected workers, who work a little less but earn more per year.”

  Splinter News | April 18, 2018
• The Conference Room Is Replacing the Courtroom

  ns of a mounting mandatory arbitration problem, but the picture wasn’t exactly clear. In 1995 the Government Accountability Office found that 7.6 percent of employers required employees to give up their rights to sue in a public court, making it a disturbing but not particularly widespread trend. In 2003, Colvin conducted a limited surveyof the telecommunications industry and found that 14.1 percent of employers required the contracts, indicating the numbers were growing. It was unclear how bad the problem had gotten until Colvin’s new study, which he discussed at an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) panel last week. His research determined that 53.9 percent of private-sector business establishments impose mandatory arbitration on their employees. The majority of nonunion, private-sector employers are working under mandatory arbitration clauses, 40 percent of which were imposed in just the last five years. Ceilidh Gao, an attorney at the National Employment Law Project, joined Colvin on the EPI panel to explain what this looks like for workers on the ground. The upshot is that the conference room has replaced the courtroom — and of course, the conference room belongs to the company. “There’s the arbitrator, and there are the parties and their lawyers,” Gao explains. “There’s no jury, there’s no judge, and there’s no public access.” Arbitration is a private court, not a public court. (Colvin report/event cited throughout)

  Jacobin | April 18, 2018
• How the US supreme court could silence #MeToo

  The decision in these cases will have broad impact. According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than one in two workers (55%) are subject to mandatory arbitration. The number has doubled since the early 2000s, when these agreements were found in a quarter of workforce agreements.

  The Guardian | April 18, 2018
• The ties that bind in mandatory arbitration are unraveling

   

  People who sign these contracts waive their rights to sue and agree to settle disputes through binding arbitration, a process that’s secretive, expensive and final. An estimated 60 million U.S. private-sector nonunion employees — or 56 percent of the total workforce — are covered by mandatory arbitration policies, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  San Antonio Express-News | April 18, 2018
• California standoff over border request

   

  ‘AMBUSH ELECTION RULE’ COMMENTS: An Obama-era rule to speed up union elections has “made NLRB elections more efficient” and should not be scrapped, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The group published a letter on the NLRB’s website today; the public comment period closes tomorrow on a December NLRB request for information about whether the rule should be modified or rescinded. EPI says the rule “[streamlined] the process and [allowed] employees to vote on a timelier basis” and “modernized rules” for union elections.

  Politico Pro | April 17, 2018
• Do wage theft laws in Ohio harm or help workers?

   

  Ohio ranked second among the 10 largest states for a common type of wage theft, minimum wage violations, according to a report last year by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. It estimates that Ohioans annually lose $600 million to wage theft. .. Many experts say the problem is far greater than the number of complaints indicates. The Economic Policy Institute based its estimate of $600 million in lost wages on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly federal Current Population Survey. “If our estimates are even close to being true, they suggest that what’s being reported to agencies in Ohio is a tiny fraction of the wage theft occurring, and that back wages collected are an even smaller fraction,” said David Cooper, an the Economic Policy Institute senior economic analyst who co-authored the report.

  The Plain Dealer | April 16, 2018
• How the Earned Income Tax Credit Lifts Families From Poverty

   

  Though it’s formally called a credit, the EITC is a tax refund that puts extra money in the pockets of lower-income working families and individuals, particularly those raising children. “The EITC is set out to encourage work, and also boost the earnings of low-income workers,” says Hunter Blair, a budget analyst with Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “It incentivizes people who are low-income workers to work more hours, and incentivizes people who are not in the labor force to enter the labor force.” (Blair quoted throughout)

  Equal Voice for Families | April 12, 2018

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