The cost of extending UI benefits to hourly workers would be $28 million per year according to the Economic Policy Institute—a little over 1% of the $2.7 billion spent to refill the trust fund. At that rate, the $162 million upfront allocation requested would last more than five years. It would be a small price to pay to make these essential occupations more manageable for the Minnesotans who fill them. And with the surplus on hand, the state could easily afford to cover the cost on behalf of school districts indefinitely.
Minnesota Reformer
May 20, 2022
GUESTS
- Heidi Shierholz
Arthur B. Laffer
Munk Debates
May 20, 2022
Today, more than 90 percent of domestic workers are women, and over half of them are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American/Pacific Islander women, according to a 2020 report published by the Economic Policy Institute. They tend to be older than those in other professions and are three times as likely to be living in poverty or just above the poverty line, a circumstance only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. All of them are excluded from federal laws establishing basic workers’ rights.
Harper's Bazaar
May 20, 2022
A 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute noted that “a lack of sufficient, qualified teachers threatens students’ ability to learn” and that “instability in a school’s teacher workforce (i.e., high turnover and/or high attrition) negatively affects student achievement and diminishes teacher effectiveness and quality.”
Colorado Sun
May 20, 2022
Research from the Economic Policy Institute has found that “unions improve wages and benefits for all workers, not just union members. They help reduce income inequality by making sure all Americans, and not just the wealthy elite, share in the benefits of their labor”.
The Independent
May 20, 2022
Mandatory arbitration is more common in industries dominated by female and Black workers, according to a 2018 report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Fast Company
May 20, 2022
“I don’t think these things like meditation or whatever employers may be doing to increase well-being are bad initiatives,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “But they do not substitute for decent wages, decent benefits, sane scheduling.”
New York Times
May 20, 2022
In April, the unemployment rate in the U.S. stood at 3.2% for white Americans and 5.9% for Black Americans.
“The ongoing COVID-19 crisis continues to highlight the many layers of racial inequality in the U.S. labor market,” Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity & the Economy, told a congressional committee in January.
“In contrast to the nearly uniform rise in unemployment rates between February and April 2020, since that time, the white unemployment rate has fallen fastest,” she said.
Crain’s Chicago Business
May 20, 2022
This story was first posted at Economic Policy Institute.
A leaked draft of a majority opinion authored by Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito strongly suggests that the court will rule to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two landmark cases that have upheld the right to an abortion nationwide for the last half century. If the final ruling largely follows what is sketched out in the leaked draft, abortion services will be drastically curtailed, if not outright banned, in over half the country.
In These Times
May 20, 2022