Will the lowest-paid Americans drive a wage-price spiral? We should be so lucky. But no, that doesn’t look likely. As Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute observed last week, “Relative to the situation in the 1970s, the 2021 inflationary shock is playing out in a context of highly unbalanced bargaining power between labor and capital.” Bivens noted that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell both said recently that they saw no evidence of a wage-price spiral emerging. That sounded dangerously as though they believe wage-price spirals do exist. And indeed, the Fed will be raising interest rates over the next year. There’s some danger it will do so more than necessary to keep inflation in check. But if that happens, it won’t be because they spoke the forbidden words.
The New Republic
February 18, 2022
According to the Economic Policy Institute, in 2020, the ratio of CEO to typical-worker compensation was 351:1. In 2019 it was 307:1. Both figures are big increases from 1965 when it was 21:1.
Iowa Press Citizen
February 18, 2022
Citation: Bivens, J and L Mishel (2015), “Understanding the Historic Divergence between Productivity and a Typical Worker’s Pay: Why It Matters and Why It’s Real,” Economic Policy Institute
Vox EU
February 18, 2022
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute finds Arizona is one of 33 states where infant child care is more expensive than college tuition.
KTAR News
February 18, 2022
because they are sick, are caring for someone else who is ill or are needed for child care, notes Valerie Wilson, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
The City
February 18, 2022
Research done by the Economic Policy Institute concludes that at the national level, 27% of the workforce in the US would benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage. But because they have higher wages, only 18% of white men would benefit compared to 32% of white women (and 39% of Black and Latina women).
Honolulu Civil Beat
February 18, 2022
“Most of the inflation we’ve seen over the last 15 months has been about extreme distortions the pandemic has put on the economy,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
CNN Business
February 18, 2022
… and the Economic Policy Institute, told the U.S. Court of Appeals … Procurement Act to “prescribe policies and directives” that they (paywall).
Bloomberg Law
February 18, 2022
By Terri Gerstein, fellow at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and at the Economic Policy Institute.
NBC News
February 18, 2022
Missouri has also been relatively insulated from the impact of job losses linked to industrial outsourcing to China. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., concludes that the state has recorded a loss of 2 percent of its total employment base due to China outsourcing from 2001-2018. It places Missouri 30th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. in the severity of that impact.
Politico
February 18, 2022