Thanks to President Biden’s executive order requiring all companies with federal contracts to pay their workers at least $15 an hour, nearly 400,000 workers will get raises starting next week, when the order takes effect. According to tabulations by our friends at the Economic Policy Institute, the average wage increase will be $3,100, and more than half of the workers who benefit will be Black or Hispanic.
The American Prospect
February 4, 2022
Income disparity is worse for Wausau residents compared to most metro areas around the country, according to the latest research from the Economic Policy Institute.
Wausau Pilot and Review
February 4, 2022
And if you top off the cutback in fiscal spending with aggressive rate increases from the Fed, we could cut short a promising recovery, says Josh Bivens, director of research at the progressive Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
February 4, 2022
Take health care, for example: The PCE Price Index accounts for costs incurred by government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as private insurers, where CPI does so just for health costs that directly impact Americans’ wallets, according to Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 4, 2022
According to a report published by the Economic Policy Institute, minimum wage workers are today effectively making 21 percent less than their counterparts did 12 years ago—when the federal government last raised the wage to $7.25.
Newsweek
February 4, 2022
Naturally, when power is given to the working class, conflict forms between workers and their employers. Companies are known to combat unionization, collectively spending around $340 million a year on “union avoidance,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. Why use that money to pay employees more when they could spend it on anti-union propaganda?
Rocky Mountain Collegian
February 4, 2022
“The layoffs rate hit an historic low in December, lowest since the series began in 2000,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute says in a series of chained tweets. “Job openings increased in accommodations and food services as well as state and local government education, two sectors still suffering some of the largest job shortfalls since Feb 2020.”
Reuters
February 4, 2022
Higher wages are also luring workers into switching jobs, economists noted. Industries hired new workers at higher rates than the quits rate in every industry — a signal that workers who quit in December departed for other jobs, tweeted Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute.
CBS
February 4, 2022
Black workers lost 646,500 manufacturing jobs from 1998 to 2020, wiping out more than 30% of their employment in the sector, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
February 4, 2022
Not all people who quit are moving to better jobs. Some people are struggling to work because of ongoing disruptions with childcare, and others have had to quit because they don’t have paid sick time or are worried about facing increased health risks on the job, said Elise Gould, a senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute.
Reuters
February 4, 2022