The candidate told blue-collar voters that globalists in both parties had not defended their interests as they pursued their neo-liberal economic policies. Accordingly, Trump made sweeping promises to bring back domestic manufacturing, end job outsourcing, and erect tariff barriers to protect American farmers from foreign competition.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
March 24, 2023
Labor experts say one of the reasons that union popularity is not translating into union membership is corporate America’s willingness to fire union organizers with few deterrents for doing so. One out of every five union election campaigns involves a claim that a worker was fired in retaliation for union organizing, according to a 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
The Guardian
March 24, 2023
People with good credit scores probably don’t have too much to worry about, said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “The people who will be crowded out by that kind of tightening of credit standards are people with more marginal credit scores, people who have had trouble with debt in the past, people with low or erratic incomes,” he said.
Marketplace
March 24, 2023
In fact, the teacher pay gap “hit a record high in 2021, when the Economic Policy Institute reported that teachers were paid 23.5% less U.S. than professionals with similar education and experience.” Teachers have great benefits! Teachers pay higher health insurance premiums than other state and local employees in most states and there are districts in states like Oklahoma and California where teachers must pay for their own substitutes when they take an extended medical leave. The list goes on and on.
NPR
March 24, 2023
What’s more, after adjusting for inflation, the average teacher’s salary has stagnated since 1990. According to research from the Economic Policy Institute, that means teachers also earned 23.5% less than comparable college graduates in 2021. Even after factoring in other benefits, teacher compensation still lagged other college grads by roughly 14%.
NPR
March 24, 2023
“Fifteen dollars now is worth a lot less than I think advocates thought it would be when a lot of these bills were proposed and enacted,” Dave Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute said in an interview.
Politico
March 24, 2023
But American child labor is making a comeback. Underage children are operating fryers in restaurant kitchens and assembling parts at auto plants. Last month, when the New York Times published a blockbuster expose on how some of the nation’s most prominent companies depend on subcontractors who illegally employ migrant children, it brought attention to an ongoing horror. The Economic Policy Institute recently crunched Labor Department data and discovered an almost 300 percent increase in child labor violations since 2015.
Washington Post
March 24, 2023
Last year, more than 120,000 U.S. workers participated in major strikes over the prior year, a significant increase according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Economic Policy Institute. Still, it’s a considerable decline from pre-pandemic levels in 2018 and 2019, the institute said.
The USA Today
March 24, 2023
For many years, Michigan had the highest rate of unionization in the U.S.; as the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in a recent report, in 2005, the state’s unionization rate was 1.7 times the national rate, while the median wage was 6 percent higher than the average median wage. Since Republicans passed right to work in 2012, according to Bureau of Labor statistics data, the state has lost 40,000, or 2.6 percent, of its union members.
Salon
March 24, 2023
But outside of those industries there are still a lot of options. That’s especially true in leisure and hospitality, according to Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute. “Pretty much every month, leisure and hospitality jobs have been chipping away at the shortfall,” she said.
Marketplace
March 24, 2023
To rebuild the public workforce in today’s tight labor market, policymakers must tackle several problems simultaneously.3 Actions should include increasing funding for state and local budgets that have been starved for decades; combating COVID-19 burnout among essential service workers; and closing the growing pay gap between the public and private sectors. According to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, state and local government workers earn approximately 10 percent to 15 percent less than comparable private sector employees.4
Center for American Progress
March 24, 2023
About 80% of American private-sector, nonunion workers will be required to use arbitration to settle disputes by 2024, according to a 2019 report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy.
Bloomberg Law
March 24, 2023
“About 63% of the company’s workers make below $15 an hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which tracks company wages.”
Fortune
March 24, 2023
The Economic Policy Institute reports that between 2019 and 2022, real wages grew 9% for the lowest-paid workers – a jump they say hasn’t been matched in 40 years. And that’s after factoring inflation in.
WCIA
March 24, 2023
Pay rose at historically fast rates for low-wage workers in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022, even after adjusting for inflation, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute released Thursday morning.
Axios
March 24, 2023
A recent episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart featured EPI’s research on inflation.
The Problem with Jon Stewart
March 24, 2023
A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute analyzes wage growth from 2019 to 2022.
Business Insider
March 24, 2023
Cites EPI research on corporate profits.
Breaking Points
March 24, 2023
Between 2019 and 2022, the lowest-paid saw their real income grow 9%, according to a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. Even accounting for inflation, income for workers in the bottom 10% grew faster than in any recovery since 1979.
“It’s incredibly unusual how well they did,” said Elise Gould, EPI senior economist and one of the report’s authors.
CBS Moneywatch
March 24, 2023
“It’s a really troubling moment right now,” said Jennifer Sherer of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “We should be strengthening the system, including making sure that the permitting and the permissions and the vetting are stronger, not weaker.”
Bloomberg Law
March 24, 2023
“I think it’s a sign of the times,” said Jennifer Sherer, a senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “It is a sign of how stark extreme inequality has become, how aware the majority of workers and voters are of how unequal our economy and unequal our power is distributed in our workplaces right now.
“It’s a sign of the growing interest in reviving unions, and an acknowledgement of their really important role that they play in leveling the playing field and rebalancing that power.”
Michigan Advance
March 24, 2023
States across the country are attempting to weaken child labor protections, just as violations of these standards are rising, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The group issued a report this week that identifies 10 states as introducing or passing bills weakening child labor standards in the past two years alone.
Route Fifty
March 24, 2023
According to an important new report from the Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, at least 10 states have introduced bills weakening child labor protections during the past two years, and four have enacted them—New Hampshire, Arkansas, New Jersey, and (here’s one I missed) Iowa, which last year lowered (from 18 to 16) the minimum age for workers in childcare centers. The EPI report also said that the number of child labor violations has nearly quadrupled since 2015, from 1,012 to 3,876.
The New Republic
March 24, 2023
Contracts ratified last year called for first-year wage raises averaging 5.7%, the review of 817 deals showed. That marks a significant jump over the 3.7% average first-year increase in agreements ratified in 2021, and the highest average rate in more than 30 years.
Features quote from Celine (paywall).
Bloomberg Law
March 24, 2023
Research from the Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states were 3.1% lower than others after accounting for cost of living differences.
Axios
March 17, 2023
Economic Policy Institute: Two years later, American Rescue Plan funds are still a transformative resource: State and local governments—particularly in the South—should invest unspent funds in workers, families, and communities
“During ARPA’s second year, many governments used SLFRF dollars to tackle deep inequities in their communities, not just to deal with the immediate challenges of the pandemic but to make transformative investments whose benefits will last long into the future.
“The opportunity to make transformative investments remains, and policymakers should seize the moment to rebuild the public sector and improve the lives of working families.”
U.S. Department of the Treasury
March 17, 2023
It is highly unusual for a state to repeal such a law once it’s in effect. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, says Michigan would be the first state to do so in 60 years if Whitmer signs the legislation. (In 2018, Missouri voters passed a referendum blocking a right-to-work law that had recently been passed by GOP lawmakers.)
Huffpost
March 17, 2023