Media clips

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• A Tax Hike That Would Play Well at the Polls

  It was Larry Mishel and other economists at the Economic Policy Institute who began the annual calculations of this ratio two decades ago. The Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2010, required the Securities and Exchange Commission to calculate that ratio annually, too, but it took the Wall Street–friendly SEC eight years to comply with the act’s mandate. More than a decade ago, Sarah Anderson and other economists at the Institute for Policy Studies began calling for a ratio tax, and around then, I began banging the drum for it in my columns at both the Prospect and The Washington Post. After reading one such column, a member of the Portland, Oregon, city council persuaded his colleagues to enact such a tax in 2016, and last November, voters in San Francisco enacted it by referendum. Such a tax would clearly have far greater impact, however, if applied nationwide.

  The American Prospect March 19, 2021
• H-1B: Biden administration to impose long delay on wage-boost rule for foreign workers

  Hira, along with Rutgers University public policy professor Hal Salzman and Daniel Costa, a director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, in jointly submitted comments about the proposed rule to the Labor Department, asserted that those private wage surveys — which allow companies to set H-1B pay based on purchased survey data rather than U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage estimates — can be unreliable and provide a loophole for employers.

  Silicon Valley March 19, 2021
• WashPost: GOP Should OK Amnesty Because of Business Support

  “Men at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution saw their wages rise in 2019: a 2.6% increase at the 50th percentile and a striking 5.7% increase at the 10th percentile, along with a 4.2% increase at the 20th percentile,” according to the 2019 yearly report, by the left-wing Economic Policy Institute.

  Breitbart March 19, 2021
• Delaware Senate passes $15 minimum wage, sending bill to House where it faces less certain outcome

  “According to the Economic Policy Institute, 63% of minimum wage earners in this country are older than 25,” he said. “Sixty percent of low-wage workers are women, 51% are people of color, and 50% are working full-time. Minimum wage earners are farm workers, or grocery store workers, or janitors, or delivery drivers; the men and women who care for our children and seniors every day, and even some of our state employees.”

  WDEL March 19, 2021
• Matter of Fact Listening Tour to Expand Conversations About Race and Justice with Second Special on Thursday, March 18

  Guests scheduled for the March 18 program include:
  Valerie Rawlston Wilson, Director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy

  Tampa Bay Newswire March 18, 2021
• Minimum wage hike advances to Senate vote

  The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., that supports SB15, reported that a $15 minimum wage would lift the pay of about 122,000 Delaware workers, or nearly 27% of the state’s workforce.

  Delaware Business Times March 18, 2021
• Sanders, Warren legislation would hike taxes to curb ‘absurd’ CEO pay

  Sanders pointed to an Economic Policy Institute Study that found CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019.

  Yahoo Finance March 18, 2021
• Congresswoman Lee, Senator Sanders and Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Combat Corporate Greed and End Outrageous CEO Pay

  The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act is endorsed by 32 academic leaders and policy analysts, as well as the AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, American Sustainable Business Council, Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Campaign for America’s Future, Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Coalition on Human Needs, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Consumer Action, Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Franciscan Action Network, Greenpeace USA, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), MO Jobs with Justice, National Council of Churches, National Federation of Federal Employees, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Our Revolution, Patriotic Millionaires, People Demanding Action, People’s Action, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Social Security Works, Strong Economy for All Coalition, The Other 98%, Take on Wall Street, United for a Fair Economy (UFE), United for Respect (UFR), and the Working Families Party.

  Congresswoman Barbara Lee March 18, 2021
• Asheville City Schools seeks changes to desegregation order

  Less clear is whether ending desegregation would lead to better academic performance for students of any race. Tiece Ruffin, a professor of Africana studies and education at UNC Asheville, points to a study by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute indicating that Black children perform better on standardized tests when attending low-poverty, mostly white schools.

  Mountain Xpress March 18, 2021
• Virginia becomes ninth state to create a worker protection unit

  State attorneys general across the U.S., according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, have stepped in to protect worker rights using their relatively wide range of powers, enforcement and otherwise. Between mid-2015 and the summer of 2020, the EPI said, AG offices in five states — Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — and the District of Columbia have created worker protection units. California, Massachusetts and New York also have similar enforcement arms.

  Construction Dive March 18, 2021