This financial incentive mechanism seems to be unique to Connecticut, according to Terri Gerstein, a workers’ rights lawyer of more than 20 years who served in leadership roles within labor departments in New York, was a researcher at Harvard Law School and the Economic Policy Institute and now heads the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative.
The CT Mirror
August 20, 2024
“We would definitely still think that there’s a teacher shortage. It is improved in some ways, and in other ways, it’s stayed the same,” said Hilary Wething, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
“I think there is some good news in that we’ve seen state and local education employment fully recover to pre-COVID levels, to February 2020 levels, of employment, but that’s not really the full context, because the employment levels in that industry in February of 2020 were still below what we would expect to have a fully robust education employment in our country,” Wething added.
The Hill
August 20, 2024
“I’m not at all saying that workers won’t get anything,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “But I think that a meaningful share of the [federal] expenditures on a tax exemption like this will go to the employers of tipped workers.”
That might be why industry lobbyists have backed the proposal. “It’s not a surprise that the National Restaurant Association loves this,” Shierholz said, referring to the lobbying group that represents many of the country’s major restaurant chains.
At worst, the tax policy might even put a downward pressure on service sector wages by allowing employers to keep their workers’ baseline pay low because the tax cut could instead raise the workers’ take-home pay.
“I think there is no question that it would” weigh wages down, Shierholz said. The only question, she says, is just how much.
So while “no tax on tips” might make for a good sound bite or campaign slogan, it doesn’t necessarily translate to wise policymaking.
VOX
August 20, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-union persuaders each year, although due to lackluster enforcement of reporting requirements, not all of it is publicly reported. Employers, by law, must also file reports, known as LM-10s, detailing how much they’ve spent on this persuader activity.
Orlando Weekly
August 20, 2024
E & E News
August 20, 2024
Project 2025 proposes taxing employers on any non-wage benefits that exceed $12,000 per worker annually. This policy, which has received little public attention, could impact health insurance, retirement plans, and other employer-provided benefits that many workers rely on. According to an analysis by EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute, this proposal could affect more than 15 million workers, resulting in an additional $12 billion in taxes if employers reduce or eliminate these benefits.
Nation of Change
August 20, 2024
“This wouldn’t help very many workers, and it could actually be very harmful to millions more, with the real benefits of this policy change going to employers and the wealthy at the expense of working people,” says David Cooper, researcher from EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization.
NerdWallet
August 20, 2024
Though he has positioned himself as pro-union, Trump is no stranger to complaints about his labor policy and approach to worker rights. In 2020, the Economic Policy Institute released a report listing 50 ways the first Trump administration eroded worker rights and expanded corporate power.
Business Insider
August 20, 2024
Regardless, new immigration laws will have a deep impact on labor availability in agriculture and will need corresponding prioritization of worker programs and securing a consistent and law-abiding workforce for farms. Trump may need to address the growing farmworker wage gap as well, as detailed by the Economic Policy Institute.
GO Banking Rates
August 20, 2024
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “RTW laws — and the phrase “right to work” itself — are intended to deceive and confuse. The misleadingly named policy is designed to make it more difficult for workers to form and sustain unions and negotiate collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.”
GO Banking Rates
August 20, 2024