The context for the hearing was the push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a provision supporters had hoped would be included in the COVID-19 relief bill now making its way through the budget reconciliation process. Sanders, as the Budget Committee chairman, invited CEOs and workers, along with experts on wages and labor market policy — Economic Policy Institute president Thea Lee, former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and University of Washington professor Jacob Vigdor — to speak to the committee. Unsurprisingly, few of the CEOs accepted his invitation.
Jacobin
March 5, 2021
“We always see a drop in labor force participation during recessions. It’s been a lot worse in this one,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and policy director with the Economic Policy Institute.
Politico
March 5, 2021
Wyoming and other states facing steep budget shortfalls could bounce back as early as next year if the federal government invests big in COVID recovery, according to new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Utah Public Radio
March 5, 2021
The United States Postal Service has increasingly struggled to outcompete large corporations like FedEx that use the same networks and markets, the Economic Policy Institute wrote in a report. This is partly because the USPS is limited in entering new markets and pays its workers with middle-class wages and provides benefits, unlike private competitors like FedEx that cut costs by relying on independent, contract workers, The Washington Post reported. Yet the drastically different de-carbonization goals between USPS and FedEx highlight the necessary role private companies can play in pioneering efforts towards a clean energy future.
EcoWatch
March 5, 2021
As the Economic Policy Institute points out: “Lows in the employment-to-population ratio correspond with economic downturns.” Put simply, the pandemic and resulting economic harm drove people out of the workforce.
24/7 Wall St.
March 5, 2021
“It’s hard to say it will be very appealing for young [students] to go into a profession that just at the beginning underpays you by about 20 percent relative to other professions,” says Emma García, an education economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “That is a pretty significant cut in your paycheck, and that is a penalty that has been growing for the last couple of decades.”
EdSurge
March 5, 2021
A majority of domestic workers are women of color and are three times as likely to live in poverty than other workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, an independent economic research organization.
WTKR
March 5, 2021
Romney and Cotton’s plan would only raise wages for around 3 percent of American workers, compared to 21.2 percent of workers under the Democratic proposal, according to an analysis published by the Economic Policy Institute.
Newsweek
March 5, 2021
Según el Economic Policy Institute, de los más de 20 millones de desempleados registrados en abril del 2020, el 20.2% eran latinas. Y eso se debe, en gran parte, a que trabajan en las industrias más afectadas por los cierres a causa de la COVID-19: hospitalidad y esparcimiento (hoteles, restaurantes, entretenimiento y turismo), servicios (industria de limpieza, alimentos, atención médica y seguridad), comercio y educación, entre otros. Aunque hubo una eventual y leve recuperación en los meses subsiguientes, las mujeres hispanas aún constituían el 9.2% de los desempleados en enero del 2021.
AARP
March 5, 2021
This system gives equal chance to each registration regardless of wage or occupation. The biggest users of the H-1B program have the capacity, experience, and demand to submit thousands of petitions annually. A small number of companies flood the lottery with H-1B registrations, increasing their chances of success at the expense of small businesses and startups that register for one or two specialized foreign workers. Data for the 2019 fiscal year shows that the top 30 firms, half of which are identified by the Economic Policy Institute as having an outsourcing business model, accounted for nearly 20 percent of approved new petitions in FY 2019.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
March 5, 2021