Media clips

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• Jobs Up, Pay Up: Breaking Down the June Jobs Report
  Cheddar July 9, 2021
• Activists want policymakers to reimagine unemployment program, which typically serves only a fraction of the jobless

  Mason’s experience is one of the reasons advocates are calling on policymakers to reimagine the unemployment system. In a new report, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is calling for setting minimum federal standards to replace wildly divergent levels of benefits from state to state, tying the term of benefits programs to the economic conditions on the ground instead of relying on Congress and expanding eligibility in a system with a long list of reasons for rejecting people.

  EPI say state-level unemployment programs are obsolete and riddled with exclusions. Absent federal intervention that temporarily expanded eligibility during the pandemic, less than one-third of jobless people in the U.S. received unemployment benefits in 2019.

  Nevada Independent July 9, 2021
• There’s a Way to Get More People Vaccinated—and It Doesn’t Involve the Lottery

  Terri Gerstein is the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute. Previously, she was the Labor Bureau chief in the New York State Attorney General’s Office and a deputy commissioner in the New York State Department of Labor.

  The Nation July 9, 2021
• Labor shortage? Wage data sends mixed signals.

  But, “there really isn’t any evidence of widespread labor shortage,” said Valerie Wilson at the Economic Policy Institute.

  If there were, Wilson said, employers would be jacking up wages across the board to entice unemployed workers. Instead, there are some pockets of wage acceleration, “in leisure and hospitality. A big boost in those wages is the fact that they’re getting more tips now because more people are coming to those restaurants in person.”

  Marketplace July 9, 2021
• Jobs report

  Payroll growth over the last three months in the US has been ‘huge’, says Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute (and former chief economist at the Department of Labor)

  The Guardian July 9, 2021
• There’s no labor shortage — just not enough good jobs

  “Nothing about this is going to be permanent,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  LA Times July 9, 2021
• Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Paved the Way for Donald Trump’s America

  While Joe Biden narrowly won back Wisconsin and Michigan last year, the states are increasingly polarized, a trend that has been exacerbated by labor’s demise. As the Economic Policy Institute has shown, the decline in union membership correlates with a rise in income inequality. It is also a central culprit in America’s political dysfunction and in the atomization of the electorate; studies have shown that union members are more active in civil society, more likely to vote and less prone to racial resentment.

  New York Times July 9, 2021
• Biden Moves To Restrict Noncompete Agreements, Saying They’re Bad For Workers

  The White House estimates that noncompete agreements are used by roughly half of private-sector businesses for at least some of their employees, affecting anywhere between 36 million and 60 million workers. The numbers come from a 2019 report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which surveyed 634 employers.

  The report found that while businesses with well-paid, highly educated workers are more likely to use noncompetes, the agreements were not uncommon in sectors dominated by low-wage workers. Almost 30% of establishments offering an average hourly wage below $13 require noncompetes for all their workers, the survey found.

  Famously, the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s agreed to stop using noncompetes in 2016 after being sued in New York and Illinois. The chain had prohibited its sandwich-makers and drivers from working for another sandwich shop within a 3-mile radius of any Jimmy John’s in the country.

  Noncompetes are still fairly common in construction, manufacturing and retail, the EPI survey found. And workers bound by them often enter jobs unaware of the requirement. Almost a third of businesses surveyed said they ask new employees to sign the agreements after they’ve accepted the job, often on their first day of work.

  NPR July 9, 2021
• The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Blow to Farmworkers — And All Other Workers, Too

  The rule that gives California unions access to private property was put in place for good reason. “It takes account of who farmworkers are, how they work, and the fact that they are really hard to reach,” says Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.

  Costa says that many farmworkers live on the premises where they work, meaning that in order to speak to them at all, union organizers need to be able to access private agricultural property. In other cases, such as at Cedar Point, workers live in housing that is rented out and therefore effectively controlled by their employer.

  On top of being physically hard to reach, Costa says there are often language barriers, with many workers speaking a primary Indigenous language rather than Spanish or English. “They also sometimes work unusual hours because of the heat, and usually live and work in far-off rural places,” says Costa.

  Jacobin July 9, 2021
• Joe Biden Wants To Crack Down On Noncompete Clauses

  The crackdown on noncompetes is meant to increase competition among employers and restore workers’ leverage in the job market. Labor economists say limiting or banning such clauses will give workers more mobility and ultimately greater earnings, by allowing them to take their work to the highest bidder.

  “If you’re a nonunionized worker … basically your only source of power with your employer is the implicit threat that you can quit and take a job somewhere else,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  Huffpost July 9, 2021