With the news last week that the Biden Administration’s historic paid leave proposals have been stripped from the reconciliation package, pressure is on the Administration to use other avenues to improve work-life balance for struggling families. A key first step should be restoring the 40-hour work week by ordering the Labor Department to issue much stronger regulations that bring back overtime pay coverage for the majority of the salaried workforce that used to be protected.
Democracy Journal
November 5, 2021
In places like Salinas, where agriculture is a major industry, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,967. The average annual salary for a full-time farm worker in California is $30,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Daily Californian
November 5, 2021
But the Biden administration has been slow to undo the trade policies of his predecessor because the tariffs have support in the politically vital state of Pennsylvania. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said the tariffs created more than 3,000 steelmaking jobs and Raimondo said they kept workers employed, the Post reports.
UPI
November 5, 2021
In the electorally crucial state of Pennsylvania, for instance, the administration faces strong political pressure to maintain the tariffs on behalf of state steelworkers. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank, found that the tariffs created more than 3,000 steelmaking jobs. Raimondo this month said the tariffs “helped save American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries.”
Washington Post
November 5, 2021
“There’s a lot of momentum right now, but there are some very serious obstacles toward workers actually acquiring sustained levels of power,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, noting that under 11 percent of American workers are represented by unions.
The New York Times
November 5, 2021
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Quint
November 5, 2021
Join us for this virtual, multi-library event with author Richard Rothstein, Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Patch.com
November 5, 2021
The average CEO at the nation’s 350 largest public companies was paid about 351 times as much as a typical worker in 2020, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, or about $24.2 million on average. The ratio ticked up from a 307:1 ratio in 2019 and a 61:1 ratio in 1989.
Providence Journal
November 5, 2021
But looking at the bigger picture over the last few months shows bargaining power for workers may not last. Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, tweeted that “slower job growth in the delta-period has been accompanied by slower wage growth in most industries,” with wages growing faster between May and July than they have between August and October.
Business Insider
November 5, 2021
Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, says his preferred measure of how much Americans are earning is the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s wage growth tracker, which suggests that worker wages increased by 4.2% in September — strong growth, but not enough to keep up with inflation.
CNBC
November 5, 2021