EPI in the news

• It’s time for R.I. to get serious about teacher recruitment and retention

  According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, that gap increased by 7.6 percent between 2010 and 2021, causing the average weekly wages of teachers…[paywall].

  Boston Globe | December 5, 2024
• Circuit court judge rejects effort to temporarily block Florida’s anti-union law

  Unions can help shrink the so-called public-sector wage gap, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, at a time when many state and local governments continue to face staffing shortages.

  Orlando Weekly | December 5, 2024
• Column: Trump has named a pro-union secretary of Labor, but will she be able to do anything for workers?

  The labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute also offered encouraging words, citing Chavez-DeRemer’s support for the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would protect organizing and collective bargaining rights for government employees.

  “While Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer’s support for these needed reforms is encouraging,” EPI general counsel Celine McNicholas wrote, “if confirmed, she will be Secretary of Labor for a president who steadfastly pursued an ambitious anti-worker agenda during his first term in office.”

  LA Times | December 5, 2024
• Chestnut Hill Hospital workers say persisting staffing shortages put patient care at risk

  The two parties have been negotiating for about eight months. In many cases, it takes more than one year for a new union to reach their first contract deal with owners and management, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

  WHYY | December 5, 2024
• Atlanta drivers join Teamsters in effort to get Amazon contract

  …records of workplace injuries and illnesses,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. His first-term nominees to top positions at the…[paywall]. 

  Atlanta Journal Constitution | December 5, 2024
• Somehow It’s Still Legal to Pay Disabled People Less Than Minimum Wage

  The Biden administration in 2021 narrowed the circumstances under which workers could be paid the tipped subminimum, reversing a Trump-era rule that increased use of the tipped subminimum, at a cost to workers that the Economic Policy Institute estimated at $700 million annually. 

  New Republic | December 5, 2024
• Map Shows US States with the Highest Unemployment Rates

  Heidi Shierholz, President of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Department of Labor, says fears over automation and the risks posed by AI are overblown. She told Newsweek that “technological change has really never led to sustained reduction in the overall number of jobs,” and that change would instead be seen in the “composition” of the future job market.

  Newsweek | December 5, 2024

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