Several studies have found that worker wages suffer in right-to-work states. A 2011 Economic Policy Institute (EPI) paper found that wages in these states were 3.1 percent lower, after controlling for outside economic factors, like higher cost of living in some states. A study from EPI five years later found that the decline in union power in the US was tied to a decrease in wages of up to 8 percent. A analysis from Rep. Sherman’s office found that in 2020, annual wages in right-to-work states were about $11,000 less on average than in states that don’t have this kind of union-weakening legislation.
Mother Jones
September 12, 2022
On top of this, the central argument in Goldwien’s case and across corporate media—that debt relief will spur demand—rests on the assumption that canceling people’s debt will incentivize them to buy things for which there is not enough supply to keep prices stable. Heidi Shierholtz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, took to Twitter (5/12/22) to shut this argument down:
The latest version of the claim “we can’t have nice things because inflation” is the idea that we can’t cancel federal student debt.… But folks, there is currently a pause on federal student loan repayments, which means that people with this debt don’t currently have debt payments. So even if somebody’s debt is entirely canceled under a new policy, their monthly costs won’t decrease relative to what they currently are. This will dramatically limit any impact on new spending and hence provide no upward inflation pressure relative to the status quo.
FAIR
September 12, 2022
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told Fortune back in May that a close look at GDP numbers actually shows… [PAYWALL]
Fortune
September 12, 2022
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 46 percent of renters nationwide are paying more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing.
The home ownership rate in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 65.5 percent. Partially because apartment rentals in New York City are so widespread, home ownership in New York State is only 53.6 percent.
Hudson Valley One
September 12, 2022
On the other hand, the Economic Policy Institute says that between 1979 and 2019, while net productivity increased by close to 60%, worker compensation only grew by about 16%. Additionally, wage inflation this year has still not kept pace with the rise in inflation, so perhaps compensation is simply catching up to productivity right now.
Lincoln Journal Star
September 12, 2022
“Quiet quitting”—an allegedly new trend characterized by workers performing only their required job duties and no more—has been getting a lot of attention in recent weeks, but the defining trend of the past 40 years of U.S. economic history is “quiet fleecing,” and we should be talking much more about it.
“The reality is workers have long been going ‘above and beyond’ and not getting paid for it.”
That’s the argument put forth Friday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank with a long track record of popularizing research on wage suppression and runaway inequality.
“Everyone’s obsessed with a post-pandemic phenomenon called ‘quiet quitting,’” EPI wrote in an email. “It’s basically defined as workers just doing the basic requirements of their jobs and not going ‘above and beyond.’”
“But the reality is workers have long been going ‘above and beyond’ and not getting paid for it,” EPI continued. “We’re calling this phenomenon ‘quiet fleecing.’”
Common Dreams
September 12, 2022
That holds true as recently as 2019, when an Economic Policy Institute study found that Black workers in the U.S. overall had double the likelihood of experiencing unemployment, though the gap for college-educated workers was smaller.
Charlotte Observer
September 9, 2022
Additionally, Stacker spoke with Elise Gould, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute, to get more insights into the economy. She helped provide information as to why layoffs are now at record lows.
Stacker
September 9, 2022
In Western profit-driven, shareholder-first companies, the compact between management and workers has long since broken down. Chief executive pay is up 1,300% since 1978, and is now 351 times higher than a typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Disengagement seems a natural consequence.
Bloomberg (via Washington Post)
September 9, 2022
“It is very frustrating to me that Congress and many state legislatures — but not all — have effectively abandoned their commitment to paying decent wages,” Ben Zipperer, an economist specializing in the minimum wage and low-wage labor markets at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, previously told Insider.
Business Insider
September 9, 2022