According to the Economic Policy Institute, wage theft costs U.S. workers as much as $50 billion per year — a number far higher than all robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts combined. While we’re taught to be vigilant and lock our homes and cars to prevent robberies, most workers are not trained on how to identify wage theft and claw back stolen wages. Wage theft is also more likely to affect low-wage workers, immigrant workers, and workers with less education and fewer resources.
In These Times
February 17, 2023
While the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 per hour since 2009, many states have continually raised theirs. “States began instituting their own, higher minimum wages during periods of federal inaction,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “So the longer the gap between federal minimum wage increases, the more likely some states went ahead and raised their own state-level minimum.”
CNBC
February 17, 2023
He worked 16 years at the liberal, pro-labor Economic Policy Institute before Mr. Biden hired him to be the chief economist for the vice president when Mr. Biden and President Barack Obama took office in 2009. In announcing his departure, E.P.I. officials called Mr. Bernstein “a tireless advocate for middle- and low-income families and for greater equity in the U.S. economy.”
New York Times
February 17, 2023
First, they face employers that are highly mobilized and unified in their commitment to sacrificing the rights of ordinary people to make higher profits. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down how much money is being spent today on whittling away the wages and benefits of their employees—either by preventing them from unionizing or by seeking to break the unions their employees have already voted for. According to journalist Tyler Walicek, even with the EPI’s caveats about what spending they couldn’t fully account for, it concluded that “total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year.”
CNN
February 17, 2023
No other state in the country has a $20 minimum wage nor legislation on the books to reach that threshold in the coming years. The $15 per hour wage in Massachusetts that took effect Jan. 1 ranks fourth-highest among states and territories., trailing Washington, D.C. ($16.10), Washington state ($15.74) and California ($15.50), according to data tracked by the Economic Policy Institute.
WBZ News Radio
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, of the Economic Policy Institute, takes the wide view.
“Except for in very short periods of time, the late ’90s or the few years leading up to the pandemic recession, workers have had very little leverage,” Gould told us. “You see that in wages, so then why wouldn’t you see that in their ability to take benefits?”
The Washington Post
February 10, 2023
Data from the NLRB showed that employers were charged with violating federal labor law in roughly four out of every ten union elections between 2018 and 2022, according to research conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington D.C.
The American Banker
February 10, 2023
Scarlet Fu & Katie Greifeld bring you the latest news and analysis leading up to the final minutes and seconds before and after the closing bell on Wall Street and tackles the surprising jobs report, the latest on Adani and looking ahead to the Exchange ETF Conference Guests Today: Stephen Stanley of Amherst Pierpont, Tiffany Wilding of PIMCO, Alex Merutka of Craftsman+, Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mimi Duff of GenTrust, Jason Pride of Glenmede, Julia Pollack of ZipRecruiter, Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, Vicki Salemi of Monster
Bloomberg TV
February 10, 2023
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, says it might be odd to think of policymakers as wanting to see wage growth fall.
“People are like ‘wait, what do you mean?’ And I think it’s important to note that inflation is actually coming down faster than nominal wage growth is coming down,” said Gould.
Marketplace
February 10, 2023
What did the tight labor market achieve? Probably its greatest accomplishment was to lift wages for low-income workers more than it did for other groups. An August study by the Dallas Fed found that wages for the bottom 20 percent in the income distribution rose 7.7 percent during the previous two years, compared to 4.8 percent for the middle 20 percent and 3.6 percent for the top 20 percent. Indeed, according to an April 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute, low-wage workers (in this instance, the bottom 25 to 30 percent of the income distribution) were the only workers whose wage gains beat inflation.
The New Republic
February 10, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated that total spending on the union-busting industry amounts to at least $340 million a year. However — because “loopholes in the law’s reporting requirements allow consultants and law firms [to] avoid reporting their work” — a full accounting is currently impossible.
Truthout
February 10, 2023
As a result of the investigation and with bipartisan support, former President Donald Trump initially imposed a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from countries other than Canada and Mexico in early 2018. After additional measures were taken against Chinese aluminum in particular, primary aluminum production in the U.S. increased 37.6% by 2020, breathing new life into the industry, according to a 2021 study by the Economic Policy Institute.
Courthouse News Service
February 10, 2023
Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that researches economic trends and policies …(paywall).
Verify This
February 10, 2023
“The labor market is pretty strong,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, told NBC News. “The unemployment rate is low, and there are still people who have not returned to the labor market after the pandemic, so we can expect the labor force can grow. But we’ve had an incredible couple of years of recovery.” she added.
Forbes
February 10, 2023
The only sustainable and sure solution is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And then, and only then, index it to inflation or some other standard. The Raise the Wage Act would do this, phasing increases of the minimum wage in over four years, till it reaches $21.25 in 2027. The average wage earner would see their earnings rise by
over $3,000/per year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Ithaca Voice
February 10, 2023
No other state has a $20 minimum wage or legislation on the books to reach that threshold. The $15-an-hour wage in Massachusetts that took effect Jan. 1 ranks fourth-highest among states and territories, trailing Washington, D.C. ($16.10), Washington state ($15.74) and California ($15.50), according to data tracked by the Economic Policy Institute.
Metro West Daily News
February 10, 2023
A family can “afford” the cost of child care when it amounts to 7% of their monthly income, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but they’re often spending closer to 20%. For a worker earning Wisconsin’s minimum wage, child care would consume 80% of their monthly income, the Economic Policy Institute found.
Green Bay Press Gazette
February 10, 2023
The size and scope of the long-standing teacher shortage in the United States has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and has only gotten worse as life has begun returning to normal, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Labor Tribune
February 10, 2023
In a study, the Economic Policy Institute found child care costs for one infant is nearly 16% of a median family’s income in Texas. The average cost of child care for a 4-year-old Texan is $7,062 a year, or $589 every month. The average annual cost for an infant is $9,324, or $777 per month.
Fort Worth Report
February 10, 2023
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), employers were charged with breaking the law in 39 percent of union elections filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) between 2019 and 2022.
Truthout
February 10, 2023
Since the COVID pandemic, educators have left their jobs in record numbers due to low pay and severely low morale. While educator vacancies in Nevada are not new, at the midpoint of this school year we still have thousands of school vacancies, with many more positions being covered by long-term substitutes. A December report from the Economic Policy Institute found there is a widespread national teacher shortage that is especially severe here in Nevada and in districts and schools with high percentages of low-income students and students of color. They also found the current shortage is not the result of an insufficient number of qualified teachers, but rather low pay and an increasingly stressful work environment. The average pay differential between teachers and similar college graduates in the job market has grown to 23.5%.
Reno Gazette Journal
February 10, 2023
Massachusetts has some of the most expensive child care in the nation, according to 2020 data from the Economic Policy Institute, with the average monthly price for an infant sitting at $1,743 and $1,258 for a 4-year-old.
WGBH
February 10, 2023
Features Daniel discussing California Farmworkers.
KQED
February 10, 2023
Ohio state Rep. Elliot Forhan said lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation this year that will eliminate subminimum wages, and a separate bill would immediately bump the minimum wage for all workers from $10.10 to $15 per hour. It would then increase to $21 over three years and increase $1 annually until it reaches the living wage as defined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator or Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, according to Forhan.
Route Fifty
February 10, 2023
In addition to those demographic and pandemic factors, temporary government stimulus programs during the pandemic, such as boosted unemployment payments, gave more workers the confidence to switch jobs and seek better pay and working conditions, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. That’s given workers a lasting upper hand in the job market.
Investopedia
February 10, 2023
In 2021, the child poverty rate dropped to 5.2% — a notable decline from 9.7% in 2020. And the boosted Child Tax Credit is the leading reason, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). In the absence of that enhancement, it’s easy to see why so many children have slipped back into poverty.
Motley Fool
February 10, 2023
Coming up on today’s show:
- Kyle Moore, economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), talks about persistence of, and ways to eliminate, the Black-white wealth gap which is still evident despite civil rights and fair housing legislation.
WNYC Brian Lehrer Show
February 10, 2023
Among the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ findings for the month was also the market’s historically low unemployment rate of 3.4% or 5.7 million people. That’s the lowest it’s been since 1969. The rate “continues to show the we have an especially tight labor market,” says Ben Zipperer, economist at the Economic Policy Institute, meaning one in which workers have a lot of opportunities.
CNBC
February 10, 2023
“Inflation has been quite high over the last year and that has eaten away at many paychecks, says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “But if we look more recently though, there is a bit of a more nuanced story.”
Fast Company
February 10, 2023