Farmworkers are some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S, according to a 2021 report from The Economic Policy Institute. On average, farmworkers in 2020 earned about $14.62 per hour, “far less than even some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. labor force,” the report found. Farmworkers at that wage rate earned below 60% compared to what workers outside of agriculture made, according to the report.
Fresno Bee
January 13, 2022
“The increase in Black unemployment appears to be borne by Black women, who experienced a huge jump in their unemployment rate from 4.9% to 6.2% in December, due in part to lower employment levels as well as an increase in labor force participation,” tweeted Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think-tank in Washington, DC.
Al Jazeera
January 7, 2022
Features Margaret discussing report, Unions are not only good for workers, they’re good for communities and for democracy.
Union City Radio
January 7, 2022
The continued prevalence of COVID-19 will drag the labor market. A similar effect took hold in the fall when the delta variant wiped out most of the employment gains of the first half of 2021, according to Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Restaurant Dive
January 7, 2022
While farm wages have gradually risen over the past 30 years, farmworkers earned an average wage in 2020 of just $14.62 per hour — a rate roughly 60% that of the average wage earned by comparable workers in industries including construction and retail, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Capital and Main
January 7, 2022
The pandemic and strong economy have given Americans a rare measure of … an economist who is president of the Economic Policy Institute. (paywall).
The USA Today
January 7, 2022
While restaurant and hospitality workers are two of the sectors hit the hardest, Americans are not leaving the workforce altogether, according to Chief Economist at the Economic Policy Institute. The institute notes that the labor market is gaining tons of jobs every month.
azfamily.com
January 7, 2022
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, points out that at the same time, 6.7m people were hired. “People who quit are taking other jobs, not leaving the workforce,” she wrote in a tweet.
The Hustle
January 7, 2022
In an analysis published Thursday, David Cooper, Krista Faries, and Sebastian Martinez Hickey of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) observed that the January 1 wage hikes in 21 states “range from a $0.22 inflation adjustment in Michigan to a $1.50 per hour raise in Virginia, the equivalent of an annual increase ranging from $458 to $3,120 for a full-time, full-year minimum wage worker.”
Common Dreams
January 7, 2022