Media clips

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• Even in tech sector, immigrant workers subject to wage theft, study shows

  A study issued Dec. 9 by the Economic Policy Institute shows that even in the tech sector, immigrants are paid less than their U.S. counterparts, though federal law says that’s not supposed to happen.

  Crux December 22, 2021
• Inflation is a global problem

  Shutdowns, for example, pushed people toward spending on goods instead of services, according to Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute.

  Marketplace December 22, 2021
• ‘I can’t get a single present’: millions in US barely scraping by amid holidays

  As of November, 15.6 million workers in the US are still being affected by the pandemic’s economic downturn; 3.9 million US workers are out of the labor force due to Covid-19, 6.9 million workers are still unemployed, 2 million workers are still experiencing cuts to pays or work schedules due to Covid-19, and another 3 million workers are misclassified as employed or out of the labor force, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  The Guardian December 22, 2021
• H-1B visa: Major tech employer in Silicon Valley committing ‘wage theft’ against foreign workers, report alleges

  Internal documents on worker wages at outsourcer HCL Technologies, a leading provider of IT contract workers, are central to the allegations in the report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, based on documents obtained via a federal government whistleblower lawsuit against HCL in a federal court in Connecticut.

  The Mercury News December 22, 2021
• Black Women Are Leaving the Workforce at the Highest Rates of Any U.S. Demographic, Report Says

  “That drop in unemployment is in part because people are getting jobs, but also in part because people are leaving the labor force,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute told the nonprofit news website The19th.

  BET December 22, 2021
• Yearly Wages of Most US Workers Grew Just 28% Since 1979 But ‘Skyrocketed’ for Top 0.1%

  Economic Policy Institute (EPI) distinguished fellow Lawrence Mishel—the group’s former president—and research assistant Jori Kandra looked at the Social Security Administration’s newly available wage data for 1979 to 2020.

  Common Dreams December 22, 2021
• Labor Politics and Antitrust Enforcement in Labor Markets

  A quick glance at the workshop’s speakers and agenda makes clear that the current FTC and DOJ appear to favor labor as a political interest group over the efficient functioning of labor markets free of anti-competitive restraints. There was discussion around the “problem” of employer power in the absence of market concentration (in universities of all places!), the need for collective bargaining rights for gig workers, and why restraints on worker mobility were bad. The speakers included the Assistant Secretary of Treasury discussing wage stagnation, the Assistant Secretary of Labor discussing worker protections, and the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a labor union think tank. One entire session was devoted to hearing from the representatives of labor unions. 

  JD Supra December 22, 2021
• South Dakota hockey team goes viral for ‘humiliating,’ ‘dystopian’ stunt involving teachers

  Teachers in South Dakota also spend an average of $349 of their own money on classroom supplies, the Economic Policy Institute found, while the Education Law Center said per-pupil funding came out to $13,847, the 33rd-worst rate in the country and low enough to earn a “D” grade from the center. (The Education Law Center did give South Dakota credit for spreading funding relatively evenly across districts, however.)

  Bring Me The News December 22, 2021
• Those ‘Wage Increases’ Stories Miss the Big Picture

  And if the share going to profits is rising, the share going to some other economic components must be falling. Earlier this week, Larry Mishel and Jori Kandra of the Economic Policy Institute published a report on the distribution of wages that noted yet another record set. In 2020, the report concluded, the wages of the bottom 90 percent of wage earners constituted the lowest share of all wages paid in a single year since the government began charting such things in 1937. The bottom 90 percent earned just 60.2 percent of all wage income last year. To be sure, this reflected the pattern of who got laid off and who didn’t in the course of the pandemic, but it also marked the continuation of a long-term trend. Since 1979, the report documents, the wages of the top 1 percent rose by 179 percent (and those of the top 0.1 percent by 389 percent!), while those of the bottom 90 percent crept along with a 28 percent increase.

  The American Prospect December 22, 2021
• HCL Underpaid workers through Loophole in H-1B Program

  HCL Technologies paid lower wages to H-1B visa workers compared to similarly employed US workers in the past few years, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 

  Decan Herald December 22, 2021