On Wednesday, May 20th, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, the Economic Policy Institute will welcome Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Center For Community Change Executive Director Deepak Bhargava for a discussion of the connection between raising wages and reducing poverty. Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI, will present findings from her latest report, Broad-Based Wage Growth is a Key Tool in the Fight Against Poverty. New Republic staff writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig will moderate the panel.
While policy efforts to fight poverty often focus on strengthening the social safety net and tax-and-transfer system, raising wages is a missing ingredient. As wages have stagnated, the link between overall economic growth and declining poverty has been severed. If wages had grown at the same rate as productivity since 1979, 7.1 million fewer people would be in poverty.
Ellison, Bhargava, and Gould, will discuss ways in which we can boost wage growth and thereby pull hardworking Americans out of poverty.
What: Discussion of new EPI report, Broad-Based Wage Growth is a Key Tool in the Fight Against Poverty, by EPI senior economist Elise Gould and research assistants Will Kimball and Alyssa Davis
Who: U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), introduced by Take Action Minnesota Executive Director Dan McGrath
Center for Community Change Executive Director Deepak Bhargava
Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould
Moderated by New Republic staff writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig
When: Wednesday, May 20, 2015
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Where: Economic Policy Institute
1333 H St NW, Third Floor
Washington, DC
To RSVP and receive an embargoed copy of the paper, email news@epi.org.