Media clips

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• A 10% raise helped McDonald’s ease its worker shortage, CEO says

  Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, previously told Insider that raising the minimum wage could be one simple solution to the labor shortage. Another prominent figure agrees with her: President Joe Biden recently said that businesses will need to pay $15 or “be in a bind for a little while.”

  Business Insider July 30, 2021
• Los trabajadores agrícolas, entre los empleados “esenciales” peor pagados en 2020, según un análisis

  “Los últimos datos salariales muestran que los trabajadores agrícolas no fueron recompensados adecuadamente: ganaron sólo $14.62 dólares por hora en 2020, mucho menos que incluso algunos de los trabajadores peor pagados de la población activa estadounidense”, dice Daniel Costa, director de investigación en derecho y política de inmigración en el Economic Policy Institute, en un reciente análisis.

  Con esta media salarial, los trabajadores agrícolas ganaron 60 por ciento menos que los trabajadores en otras industrias en cargos bajos (no de supervisores) y de producción, quienes ganaron en promedio unos $24.67 dólares por hora en 2020.

  “Esta brecha salarial prácticamente no ha cambiado desde el 2019”, agrega Costa.

  …

  Según explica Costa, los datos más confiables para saber los ingresos de los trabajadores agrícolas vienen del Servicio Nacional de Estadísticas Agrícolas (National Agricultural Statistics Service o NASS, por sus siglas en inglés) en el Departamento de Agricultura de Estados Unidos (USDA), que realiza trimestralmente la Encuesta sobre el Trabajo Agrícola (Farm Labor Survey o FLS por sus siglas en inglés). 

  …

  Además, los trabajadores agrícolas ganaron menos que otros trabajadores con niveles bajos de educación. “Los datos más recientes muestran que los salarios de los trabajadores agrícolas son extremadamente bajos desde cualquier punto de vista, incluso si se comparan con los de los trabajadores no agrícolas en situación similar y con los trabajadores con los niveles de educación más bajos”, dice Costa.

  …

  “A pesar de esta sombría realidad, no se adoptó ninguna medida federal para proteger a los trabajadores agrícolas, que fueron designados como esenciales pero siguieron recibiendo algunos de los salarios más bajos del mercado laboral estadounidense”, dice Costa.

  Entre las recomendaciones que Costa mencionó están aprobar medidas inmediatas para mejorar las normas laborales de todos los trabajadores agrícolas y alienta que más estados aprueben leyes que garanticen protegerlos de las enfermedades causadas por el calor, mejores condiciones de salud y paguen las horas extras de trabajo en el campo.

  City Limits July 30, 2021
• $15 wage becoming a norm as employers struggle to fill jobs

  Other states on track to a $15 an hour wage floor include California, Illinois, New York and Virginia. Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, estimates that four in 10 workers live in states where the minimum is set to reach $15 in the coming years.

   

  Associated Press July 30, 2021
• Starting a business? Check whether you signed a non-compete agreement at your old job

  Non-competes are documents that an employer can force a new hire to sign agreeing to not compete against that company if they leave their job. About half of private U.S. businesses require employees to sign such agreements, the Economic Policy Institute found in a 2019 study.

  According to a 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute, about half of private U.S. businesses require employees to sign such agreements.

  USA Today July 30, 2021
• Wages are rising, but inflation may have given workers a 2% pay cut

  Average hourly earnings rose 3.6%, to $30.40, in June compared with the same month in 2020. That’s the biggest spike since January 2009, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute.

  CNBC July 30, 2021
• Jill On Money: Will inflation kill the recovery?

  Adding to the inflationary pressure are wages, which are rising. In a rare, Onion-esque sarcastic headline, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute wrote, “Newsflash: Higher pay attracts workers.” While some companies can absorb higher employee costs, others are passing them along to consumers, which Economist Diane Swonk of Grant Thornton believes could mean that “Some of the inflation we are experiencing could linger.”

  The Mercury News July 30, 2021
• Are remote workers more replaceable than in-person workers? Managers say yes

  Overall, the ability to work from home falls unevenly along dimensions like education level and race, according to research published by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think-tank.

  MarketWatch July 30, 2021
• ‘A Critical Part of Our Infrastructure’: How California Plans to Bolster Child Care

  It’s a matter of saying this is a critical part of our infrastructure. It’s necessary to support families, it’s necessary to support our economy, and it’s necessary to make sure the people doing this work are not worried about feeding their own families. The problem is getting movement on that, getting the general public, and our legislators to support that in full.

  Some of my colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute have done some estimates to help us understand what the harm is and what the loss is for not doing that. They’ve estimated that parents are foregoing $30-$35 billion in income and lost household income because they either have to leave the labor force, or reduce their hours.

  KQED July 30, 2021
• Federal bill holdup delaying bus replacements, Topeka Metro says

  Congress members disagree on how to pay for the bill, according to Rob Scott, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

  “The problem has been a reluctance to spend, a reluctance to tax, a desire to prioritize tax-cutting over all other priorities,” Scott said.

  KSNT July 30, 2021
• Biden Administration Moves to Tilt Pay and Power Toward Workers

  Recent action “signifies a shift that I hope will then launch into a much broader proactive agenda,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who served as the Labor Department’s chief economist during the Obama administration.

  The Wall Street Journal July 30, 2021