EPI in the news

• New trade pact not universally backed

  “The changes embodied in the USMCA still constitute Band-Aids on a fundamentally flawed agreement and process,” said Thea Lee of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “The USMCA will in no way offset or reverse the massive devastation caused by the original NAFTA agreement.”

  The McDonough County Voice | January 24, 2020
• Union membership expands in California as national labor organizing stagnates

  In a paper analyzing the BLS numbers, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist for the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, a labor think tank, suggested that “the erosion of union coverage is not because workers don’t want unions anymore – survey data show a higher share of nonunion workers today say they would vote for a union than was the case 40 years ago,” she wrote.

  The Kansas City Star | January 24, 2020
• You get what you pay for

  According to an analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers are paid almost 20 percent less than other similar professions. In Alabama, the wage gap is closer to 30 percent. And while teachers do typically have better benefit packages, those benefits still do not make up for the pay gap.

  Alabama Political Reporter | January 24, 2020
• Opinion: Commentary: Why I support repeal of so-called “right-to-work”

  Recent studies demonstrate the devastating impact of right-to-work laws on wages. A groundbreaking study from Princeton University argues one of the biggest factors in increasing income inequality is the decline in union membership. Princeton was able to study the effects of union membership while controlling for variables such as education, skill, and race. What the study found is that on average over the last 80 years, union workers make around 15-20 percent more than non-union workers in the same field. Indeed, a 2018 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute found that the hourly wage of men in right-to-work states is $18.25, compared with $20.78 in non-right-to-work states, a difference of nearly 14 percent. The pattern of lower wages is even more pronounced for women and people of color. Right-to-work laws have a disproportionate impact on minorities because of their greater rates of work in unionized industries.

  Connection Newspapers | January 24, 2020
• Is Dr. King’s America still just a dream?

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than 90 percent of African Americans ages 25 to 29 have a high school diploma. One in four African Americans now holds a college degree, up from just 10 percent in 1968. The average life expectancy for African Americans has also increased by 12 years since then.

  Lake Norman Media Group | January 24, 2020
• Colorado the 4th state to reject Trump overtime pay rollback

  Colorado’s new COMPS Order also expands minimum wage coverage and other protections such as rest breaks for other workers in the state. The campaign that led to the COMPS Order was driven by a broad coalition, including Towards Justice, the Bell Policy Center, and others, with support from NELP and the Economic Policy Institute.

  NELP | January 24, 2020
• Jeff Bezos’s ‘shadow’ advisor position is empty for the first time in years as Amazon and his personal life face unprecedented scrutiny — here are the 7 most successful executives who once filled that role (AMZN)

  What 1 minimum wage chart tells us about the labor market A well-known factoid in American economic debates is that wages used to grow with productivity, but they don’t anymore. There’s a particularly famous chart, courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute, that shows hourly pay for the typical U.S. household increasing…

  Business Insider | January 24, 2020

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