In this year’s midterm elections, voters showed a strong level of support for progressive ballot measures across the country. These victories were tempered by the defeat of worthwhile ballot measures in some states and the uncertainty of progress under a divided Congress. Nonetheless, voters across the country approved minimum wage increases, protected access to abortion, supported cannabis legalization, and approved measures to increase housing affordability and promote good union jobs.
Though much work remains to be done to enact a progressive economic agenda, this midterm election showed clear signs of support for a policy agenda that prioritizes economic, racial, and gender justice for working families.
Common Dreams
November 18, 2022
The Wall Street Journal hosted a panel discussion that featured two advocates who favor expanding the H-1B program and one critic who urges major reforms. The advocates, David Bier, the Cato Institute’s immigration studies associate director, and Theresa Cardinal Brown, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s managing director of immigration and cross-border policy, argued that the H-1B visa cap should be increased and that their labor market presence makes America a more prosperous place.
The critic, Dr. Ron Hira, Howard University, political science associate professor and Economic Policy Institute research associate, countered that the rigged H-1B system is a transfer-of-wealth scam that makes the employers wealthy winners, and the workers, low-wage losers. Dr. Hira added that employers aren’t required to prove that a U.S. worker shortage exists before hiring an H-1B, that H-1B workers’ wages are set too low, and that the compliance system doesn’t hold employers accountable. “Guest-worker programs are supposed to fill domestic labor shortages. The H-1B program does not fill shortages,” Dr. Hira said.
Highland County Press
November 18, 2022
That brings me to the city’s 20,000-unit housing shortage. As landlords chase those higher returns, “the Airbnb effect” on the local market — as studied by the non-partisan U.S. think tank Economic Policy Institute — creates more costs than benefits.
“The costs to local renters and local jurisdictions likely exceed the benefits to travelers and property owners,” the 2019 report found.
Dallas Morning News
November 18, 2022
“The 2022 midterms prove that Democrats can beat Republican extremism by fighting for working people and making our democratic values clear,” Warren (D-Mass.) said at EconCon Presents, a meeting co-hosted by Demos Action, Economic Policy Institute Action, Economic Security Project Action, Groundwork Action, Omidyar Network, and Roosevelt Forward.
Common Dreams
November 18, 2022
But the reduction in supply was met with increased demand as Americans started purchasing durable goods to replace the services they used prior to the pandemic, said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. “The pandemic put distortions on both the demand and supply side of the US economy,” Bivens said.
CNET
November 18, 2022
In deep red Nebraska, they won a state minimum wage hike to $15 an hour by 2026, up from the current $9 an hour. The National Employment Law Project and the Economic Policy Institute estimate this action will benefit about 150,000 Nebraskans.
Inequality.org
November 18, 2022
Massachusetts voters passed a “millionaires tax” at the ballot box on Election Day in an apparent reaction to the state’s growing income disparities. The Economic Policy Institute ranks the state as the sixth-worst in the country when it comes to income inequality.
Maine Beacon
November 18, 2022
Visa workers must be paid a prevailing wage, which has four tiers. But the prevailing wages allow salaries below the median wage for an occupation. A 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a think tank in Washington, D.C., found that 60% of H-1B positions certified by the U.S. Dept. of Labor pay wage levels below the local median. Hira and Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at EPI, conducted the research.
Tech Target
November 18, 2022
That 2019 Democratic news release cited a 2015 study from the Economic Policy Institute that found that wages in Right to Work states were 3.2% lower on average than wages in states without the law.
The Center Square
November 18, 2022
That could be because 14% of workers in the US didn’t have access to sick leave as of this March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When it comes to low-wage employees, over 60% don’t have access to sick leave, according to a September study from the Economic Policy Institute.
Business Insider
November 18, 2022