EPI in the news

• Kroger CEO is ready to fight hard for merger approval

  The Economic Policy Institute recently released a policy memo claiming that workers at all grocery workers, not just those at Kroger and Albertsons, could lose a total of over $330 million annually if the deal goes through.

  The institute used grocery store employment and earnings data at specific Kroger and Albertsons stores to draw up the following findings:

  Supermarket News | September 10, 2024
• What Makes Indian Americans Tilt Republican Vs Democrat

  This pattern of superior economic performance under Democratic administrations is not limited to recent history. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank: since 1947, key macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, job growth, business investments, household income growth, etc. have consistently performed better during Democratic presidencies. A 2016 study titled “Presidents and the U.S. Economy: An Econometric Exploration”—by the 130-year-old non-profit, non-partisan American Economic Association—found that, on average, the U.S. economy has grown faster under Democratic presidents than Republican ones since World War II. Specifically, the annual GDP growth rate has averaged 4.3% under Democratic presidents, compared to 2.5% under Republicans.

  India Currents | September 10, 2024
• Nearly a million more children fell into poverty last year. Both presidential campaigns want to give parents money to fix that.

  “The official poverty rate ticking down tells us that the macroeconomy is strong,” Josh Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told BI in a statement. “The fact that it is still 11.1% at near-full employment and the SPM rose tells us the U.S. system of anti-poverty programs needs strengthening. These programs keep tens of millions out of poverty, but if we expanded them, they’d bring tens of millions more out of poverty.”

  Business Insider | September 10, 2024
• What the new overtime rule means for employers, and how they can comply

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, the final rule will benefit 4.3 million workers, 56% of whom are women and 24% of whom are workers of color.

  According to the institute, the final rule will result in a transfer of $1.5 billion annually from employers to workers in increased pay. While that increase in wages will be enormously impactful to affected workers, according to the institute, it represents well under one-tenth of 1% of total wages and salaries in the U.S. economy.

  The Business Journals | September 10, 2024
• American household incomes rebounded ahead of election year, hitting pre-pandemic levels

  “Today’s data highlight the extraordinary strength of the recovery from the economic crises caused by the pandemic, a recovery driven by policy choices — particularly large fiscal relief and recovery packages — that aimed to quickly heal the labor market,” Elise Gould and Josh Bivens, economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, noted in a Tuesday research note. 

  “The rapid growth of household incomes charted in today’s data is powerful evidence that the policy approach of recent years was the right choice,” they added.

  CBS Moneywatch | September 10, 2024
• What Is Hispanic Heritage Month, and How Is It Celebrated?

  Others also question the authenticity of some companies and organizations who “celebrate” this month for optics, but don’t focus on the issues facing the communitylike the fact that Latina women make less than anyone else at 55 to the dollar a White man makes, or that Hispanic men made 14.9 percent less in hourly wages than comparable White men, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Reader's Digest | September 9, 2024
• How GOP is making inroads with Hispanic voters

  Some studies, including a February 2024 Economic Policy Institute report, have found “a growing economy that is adding jobs for both immigrants and U.S.-born workers.”

  El Paso Inc. | September 9, 2024

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