Media clips

• Uber and Lyft drivers strike nationwide for better pay

  Last year, Uber claimed that drivers in cities like Denver and Washington, D.C., make $55,000 annually, however multiple independent studies disputed the figure. Economist Larry Mishel called the estimate “phony-baloney,” saying that it doesn’t account for out-of-pocket costs like gas and vehicle maintenance. 

  CBS Moneywatch July 23, 2021
• Some Republican states that cut federal unemployment benefits early are recovering more quickly

  Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told Insider that ending benefits early is a “massive mistake” and doesn’t make any “economic sense.”

  …

  “We still have a weak labor market,” Shierholz said. “People are depending on those benefits, and they’re injecting a ton of federal cash dollars into those states.”  

  …

  Some governors of the states that have cut the benefits early have cited labor shortages and are aiming to get workers back into the labor force, but Shierholz said labor shortages are isolated.

  Business Insider July 23, 2021
• President Biden’s Recent Executive Order Takes Aim At Non-Competes

  According to a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), 31.8% of private-sector businesses that responded to EPI’s survey (a total of 634 respondents were surveyed) reported that all of their employees had to sign a non-compete agreement, regardless of their job duties or compensation. And of the respondents that had an average wage of less than $13.00, 29% of them required all their workers to enter into non-compete agreements.

  Forbes July 23, 2021
• Here’s the hourly wage you need to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment in every state

  If adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage should have already exceeded $15, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  The group has reported that the minimum wage would have been set at $21.69 in 2020 and $23.53 by 2025 if it kept pace with economic gains; instead, $7.25 is worth 30 per cent less than was 50 years ago.

  The Independent July 23, 2021
• Worried About Inflation? Experts Weigh In

  Josh Bivens: The Fed’s reaction to inflation could be worse than inflation itself.

  Mr. Bivens is the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.

  Rising prices can certainly squeeze families’ budgets, all else equal. But recent inflation has been driven by price spikes in a small number of sectors, such as used cars, hotel rooms and airfares. Inflation driven by idiosyncratic sectoral shocks should not spur policymakers to stomp on the brakes.

  The only inflation that should spur more contractionary macroeconomic policy is inflation that comes from the labor market, when jobs become so plentiful that workers can successfully demand wage growth that runs far ahead of the economy’s capacity to deliver it. This has not happened in the United States for a long time.

  The New York Times July 23, 2021
• It’s been 12 years since the last federal minimum wage increase. Where efforts to raise the pay rate stand

  “The minimum wage is far lower than it was at its peak over 50 years ago in 1968,” said economist Lawrence Mishel, distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, which tracks minimum wage changes.

  That’s even as the productivity and efficiency of workers has more than doubled, he said.

  “The failure to increase the minimum wage has really undercut the wages of the bottom third of the work force,” Mishel said.

  …One problem with waiting to address low hourly wages is rising inflation, according to Mishel.

  “Inflation has already undercut the minimum wage quite a lot,” he said.

  …

  One argument against raising the hourly pay rate is that it could adversely businesses and employment. But there is little evidence to support those claims, Mishel said.

  “There may be some firms that close, but others open up, too,” he said. “One can ask, if a firm can only survive with substandard wages, is that a good outcome?”

  CNBC July 23, 2021
• Essential Workers: How One Worker Protected Himself from COVID-19 in Warehouse Work Spaces

  By every measure, persistent social and a history of injustices were laid bare in relation to Blacks and other minorities during the COVID-19 pandemic including disparities in health status, access to health care, employment, wages, housing, criminal justice and poverty. All of this left them more susceptible to the virus both economically and physically according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  …

  COVID-19 did not discriminate but the institutional and systemic racial disparities over which the virus spread its funeral pall was ripe for its exploitation. (Courtesy Economic Policy Institute)

  Black Voice News July 23, 2021
• July 23rd
  July 23, 2021
• Fact check: Biden makes false claims about Covid-19, auto prices and other subjects at CNN town hall

  Facts First: Biden made very clear he wasn’t sure what the real number of workers was, but still the numbers he used were way off, according to his own administration’s previous estimates. Psaki told reporters on July 7 that noncompete agreements affect “over 30 million people” in the private sector. A White House document published on July 9, meanwhile, put the figure at “some 36 to 60 million workers,” citing an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute think tank.

  CNN July 23, 2021
• Are you a victim of wage theft? Denver will soon have a new investigative unit for that.

  The average minimum wage worker loses approximately $3,300 per year due to wage theft, according to a survey conducted by the Economic Policy Institute. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment received 550 reports of wage theft in Denver in 2020, according to a city press release, but only 340 were claims of less than $2,000 and therefore were not criminally prosecuted.

  Colorado Newsline July 23, 2021