Due to inflation, the federal minimum wage in 2021 was worth 21% less than 12 years prior, and worth 34% less than in 1968, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Los Angeles Times (HS Insider)
June 17, 2022
Their companies shared the wealth when they bargained with the strong unions of the postwar years. In fact, notes the Economic Policy Institute, major U.S. corporate CEOs in 1965 were only realizing 21 times the pay their workers were pocketing.
Common Dreams
June 17, 2022
In 2021, because of the Great Resignation, workers had additional bargaining power and were able to demand higher wages. In the United States, the average wage grew 4.4% in the first year of the pandemic, per the Economic Policy Institute. Average hourly earnings also jumped significantly over the past 12 months to $31.95, a 5.2% annual increase, according to a June report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fortune
June 17, 2022
The extraordinary conditions that created this more pro-worker market won’t last forever, said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist for the US Department of Labor under President Barack Obama.
CNN
June 17, 2022
But suspending the gas tax would take away a key policy tool for discouraging the use of gasoline for other purposes, and it would remove a funding source targeted specifically for infrastructure, Adam Hersh, senior economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told ABC News.
ABC News
June 17, 2022
People with retirement accounts are keeping more of their assets in stocks now, as opposed to bonds or a mix of other investments. “There has been a growing complacency of people keeping most of their nest eggs in stocks,” said Monique Morrissey, who specializes in retirement at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute. “There has been a fundamental misunderstanding — returns do not always average out.”
New York Times
June 17, 2022
American families spend more on child care than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. And the cost in Massachusetts is the highest among the 50 states, with infant care costing, on average, over $20,000 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. The average price for 4-year-olds is only slightly lower, at $15,000 a year.
WBUR
June 17, 2022
American families spend more on child care than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. And the cost in Massachusetts is the highest among the 50 states, with infant care costing, on average, over $20,000 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. The average price for 4-year-olds is only slightly lower, at $15,000 a year.
WBUR
June 17, 2022
American families spend more on child care than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. And the cost in Massachusetts is the highest among the 50 states, with infant care costing, on average, over $20,000 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. The average price for 4-year-olds is only slightly lower, at $15,000 a year.
WBUR
June 17, 2022
American families spend more on child care than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. And the cost in Massachusetts is the highest among the 50 states, with infant care costing, on average, over $20,000 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. The average price for 4-year-olds is only slightly lower, at $15,000 a year.
WBUR
June 17, 2022
American families spend more on child care than their counterparts in many other parts of the world. And the cost in Massachusetts is the highest among the 50 states, with infant care costing, on average, over $20,000 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. The average price for 4-year-olds is only slightly lower, at $15,000 a year.
WBUR
June 17, 2022
“Renters not protected by rent control laws, low-income seniors who spend a larger share of their incomes on food, and seniors in rural areas and suburbs who rely on cars to get around are more affected,” Monique Morrissey, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, told Yahoo Money.
Yahoo Finance
June 10, 2022
And that wealth did get shared. In 1965, the Economic Policy Institute notes, major corporate CEOs in the United States were only realizing 21 times the pay their workers were pocketing. That gap would remain fairly modest over the next dozen years, only reaching 31 times in 1978.
Inequality.org
June 10, 2022
High CEO pay isn’t a new phenomenon. A report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that, in 2020, CEOS made 351 times more than the typical worker. From 1978 to 2020, according to EPI, CEO compensation has grown 1,322%. At the same time, the typical worker’s pay rose by just 18% during that time. According to the IPS report, that gap is even starker for the world’s lowest earners and their CEOs.
Business Insider
June 10, 2022
“Make no mistake, we want positive real wage growth! But nominal wage growth moderating even in the face of continued inflation is more evidence that we can keep labor markets tight right now without feeding inflation,” wrote Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning nonpartisan think tank
The Hill
June 10, 2022
Some economists have argued that, in addition to rising input costs, higher prices for consumer goods are a result of corporate power, which has allowed companies to mark up prices and increase profit margins. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, has said that “corporate pricing decisions in a pandemic-distorted environment are a propagator of inflation.” P&G declined to comment and Kimberly-Clark didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg
June 10, 2022
Those studying the issue from the outside fully agree. “We have to stop treating our public school education system in this country as an afterthought,” said David Cooper, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Economic Policy Institute. “We are already facing a huge shortfall.”
LA Progressive
June 10, 2022
Non-compete clauses and NDAs are pretty standard at many large tech companies. About half of all private-sector employers issue non-competes to at least some of their workers. That number goes even higher as worker pay and education levels increase, and in tech-heavy sectors like information and business services, according to a 2019 report from the non-profit Economic Policy Institute.
Gizmodo
June 10, 2022
Some lawmakers and the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, said it’s time raise wages higher. Bills (S3062C/A7503B) would schedule annual increases to the rate of inflation every year. The group said it would mean a $21.25 by 2026 in the city; an $18.65 wage in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties by 2026, and the rest of the state would increase from $13.20 to $16.35 by the same time. “Indexing the minimum wage in this way would protect the buying power of millions of low-wage workers’ paychecks and, in particular, improve the economic security of predominantly women, Black, and Latinx workers,” the group said in a report. — Joseph Spector
Politico
June 10, 2022
Women and minority groups could help reverse that trend, data suggests. Black workers had a higher membership rate than White workers in 2021, and the gap between men’s and women’s membership rates narrowed from 10 percentage points in 1983 to less than 1 percentage point last year. As of 2020, about two-thirds of workers covered by a union contract were women and people of color, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Law
June 10, 2022
… to a report by the Economic Policy Institute. Domestic workers are also disproportionately older, foreign-born and living in poverty.
Colorado Politics
June 10, 2022
Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz and senior analyst Elise Gould both noted private sector employment is only 0.2 percent below its numbers of February 2020. That was the last full month before the coronavirus plague shut down half the economy and threw it—and jobs—into a depression.
People’s World
June 10, 2022
Income growth varied depending on the sector. Mining and logging and construction saw some of the biggest gains. In time for summer, wages in the leisure and hospitality sector increased, said Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
June 10, 2022
Features Daniel Costa discussing immigration and visa reform.
HBO
June 10, 2022
The acute employment losses during the coronavirus recession were most severe in many industries that disproportionately employ young people, an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute found, with the unemployment rate for young workers ages 16 to 24 rising to 24.4 percent in spring 2020, more than twice the rate of workers 25 and older.
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
June 10, 2022
As the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz said, despite falling below the “blistering average pace” of per-month job growth over the last year, the May jobs total is still “extremely strong.”
The Week
June 10, 2022
During the first year of the pandemic, CEO pay overall jumped 19% — even as many of their businesses ground to a halt, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which tracks 350 of the largest US companies. The latest EPI report shows top CEOs were paid 351 times as much as a typical worker in 2020.
CNN
June 10, 2022
The pandemic, which set off the first women’s recession, might be that next catalyst, said Jennifer Sherer, the senior state policy coordinator at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
The 19th
June 10, 2022
Josh Bivens, the head of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, is worried. “If we have a recession because the Fed moves too fast and too high on interest rate hikes, that will be a clear mistake,” he recently told Huffington Post.
Bloomberg
June 10, 2022