Before COVID-19, the gap between the bottom and top rungs of the economic ladder grew over many years. Between 1979 and 2015, the top 1% saw its income grow 229% in the U.S., according to the Economic Policy Institute. Income for the bottom 90% increased 46%. Federal tax cuts in 2017 disproportionately benefited the wealthy.
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Those people are in trouble if benefits end before they have work, and not even a robust rebound will immediately provide all the jobs needed, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“Once evictions are allowed again, a lot of people who couldn’t pay the rent are in trouble,” she said. “Recovery is not going to happen in one fell swoop. I can’t imagine that inequality won’t be higher.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution
April 13, 2021
For example, investments in the power grid are “needed to protect from catastrophic weather events, but also to allow us to move to renewable sources,” says Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Or better broadband internet access could make less commuting (and less carbon emissions) possible, he says.
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And that tracks for green jobs, too. Manufacturing jobs, including those in clean energy, will “generate large numbers of excellent jobs for non-college-educated workers,” says Scott. “Those are the people who’ve been left behind for the last 20 years.”
CNBC
April 13, 2021
Conversely, the decline of unions has played a big role in rising inequality and wage stagnation. And workers have lost bargaining power as weak antitrust policies have allowed corporations to gain ever more market power.
New York Times
April 13, 2021
According to a study by the Wall Street Journal, entry-level college-graduate hiring has fallen 45% since the start of the pandemic. Young people were hit hardest by COVID-19-related unemployment: Per a report by the Economic Policy Institute, from spring 2019 to spring 2020, the unemployment rate for those 25 and older rose by 8.5% to 11.3%; the unemployment rate for workers age 16 through 24 rose by 16% to 24.4%. Many young people remain cut off from their academic networks, are grappling with lost internships, or meeting new coworkers for the first time over Zoom, as many offices remain remote.
Teen Vogue
April 9, 2021
“That loss of more than half a million public sector jobs in the early days of the recovery coming out of the Great Recession, actually delayed the recovery by about four years,” said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute. “When you cut public sector staff, you’re not just losing that job, you’re also losing jobs in the private sector that are supported by those jobs.”
CBS News
April 9, 2021
“That loss of more than half a million public sector jobs in the early days of the recovery coming out of the Great Recession, actually delayed the recovery by about four years,” said David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute. “When you cut public sector staff, you’re not just losing that job, you’re also losing jobs in the private sector that are supported by those jobs.”
CBS News
April 9, 2021
The decades-long assault on organized labor by corporations and their allies in government resulted in a dramatic erosion of union membership that cost the median U.S. worker $3,250 per year between 1979 and 2017, according to a new report released Thursday morning by the Economic Policy Institute.
The report estimates that the percentage of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements fell from 27% in 1979 to just 11.6% in 2019, a drop that had a direct impact on the wages of unionized workers and “spillover” consequences for non-unionized workers, who benefit from strong union density.
EPI distinguished fellow Lawrence Mishel, the lead author of the new report, estimates that “for the ‘typical’ or median worker, declining unionization translates to a loss of $1.56 per hour worked, the equivalent of $3,250 for a full-time, full-year worker.
Common Dreams
April 9, 2021
Some policy experts are not bothered by the prospect of further ballooning the nation’s debt or deficit, given that the economy is still recovering from COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
“We’re talking about infrastructure here: it almost pays for itself, raises national productivity, causes fewer accidents and moves goods and services to places easier,” said Rob Scott of the progressive-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Al Jazeera
April 9, 2021
What has changed, most notably, is the consensus among many economists. Whereas a few years ago, a key concern was the level of debt relative to GDP, with 90% to 100% considered a danger zone, now many are less worried about it.
“The economics field has shifted,” says Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist to the secretary of labor during the Obama administration.
The Christian Science Monitor
April 9, 2021
Manchin, the moderate Democratic senator, voted against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, even though his state is one of the poorest in the nation and data from the Economic Policy Institute shows such an increase would boost the pay of some 250,000 residents by about $4,000 a year.
USA Today
April 9, 2021