EPI in the news

• Why the Longshore Workers Strike Is Economically Justified

  Between the end of World War II and the mid-1970s, as the Economic Policy Institute has famously documented, the median wages of American workers rose at the identical rate that productivity rose. Since then, as the rate of unionization declined and as companies shifted more revenues to profits and less to wages, that has ceased to be the case. 

  American Prospect | October 3, 2024
• Why an old photo of Trump, Longshoreman’s president returned to prominence with strike

  Progress for many workers’ rights issues was stagnant leading into 2016, and Trump tapped into that frustration,  Celine McNicholas, policy director at nonpartisan research organization Economic Policy Institute Action, previously told USA TODAY.

  “He was maybe the first Republican in a long time to kind of, like actually give some voice to that outrage,” she said. “But I think it stops there.”

  She said he proposed cuts to worker protection agencies, and Economic Policy Institute called moves under his administration to overturn worker protections “unprecedented.”

  USA Today | October 3, 2024
• Jobs, inflation, wages: How the economy has fared under Trump and Biden

  Regarding those wage gains, it’s worth noting that the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan but liberal-leaning research organization in Washington, found that wage gains for lower- and middle-wage workers outpaced those of higher-wage earners through 2023.

  Detroit Free Press | October 3, 2024
• The pros and cons of labor unions

  Unions can “promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions,” said the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Pushes by unions for higher wages seem to be working, as the 17 states with the highest union densities “have state minimum wages that are on average 19% higher than the national average.”

  The Week | October 3, 2024
• Vance says immigrants caused a housing shortage. Economists disagree.

  Immigration has undoubtedly changed the U.S. economy, especially since the pandemic. About 50 percent of the labor market’s extraordinary recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data. 

  The Washington Post | October 3, 2024
• High Childcare Costs In US Weigh On Women’s Employment

  Paywall.

  Agence France Press (AFP) | October 3, 2024
• Progressives Weigh In on Kamala Harris’ Economic Proposals — and Share Some of Their Own

  “We should really be leaning into taxes for the rich,” Heidi Shierholz, chief economist at the Department of Labor under the Obama administration and now president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told Capital & Main. Harris’ cutoff of $400,000 for tax hikes suggests anyone making less than this figure is not rich. Shierholz argued that while there are different ways to define the term, this limit may be too high: “In my mind, essentially every possible way of defining the wealthy will include some people making less than $400,000 a year.”

  Capital & Main | October 3, 2024

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