According to the Economic Policy Institute, Black folks have been leaded the unemployment rates since the start of the pandemic. They noted that “in the first quarter of 2020, African American workers had the highest unemployment rate nationally, at 6.3%, following by Hispanic workers (at 4.8%), white workers (at 3.1%), and Asian workers (at 2.9%).” The states with the highest unemployment rates in 2020 were District of Columbia at 11.3%, followed by Pennsylvania at 10.2%, Louisiana at 10.0%, and Mississippi at 9.1%.
MadameNoire
March 8, 2021
Without a meaningful union presence in American life, our gap between the rich and everyone else has reached levels unimaginable a half-century ago. CEO pay at major corporations, the Economic Policy Institute points out, has soared a stunning 1,167 percent since 1978. Over that same four decades, typical worker compensation has inched up a microscopic 13.7 percent, on average just a fraction of 1 percent per year.
Inequality.org
March 8, 2021
An August report from left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI) highlighted the benefits that unions could bring to workers during the pandemic. For instance, they found that 94% of workers that are covered by a union contract have access to “employer-sponsored health benefits;” that’s the case for only 68% of nonunion workers.
“Meghan Markle illustrated the importance of unions and the crucial support they provide workers. When working people join a union, they have a voice on the job and the ability to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, and working conditions,” EPI policy associate Margaret Poydock said in a statement. “When unions are strong, they set wage standards for entire industries and occupations, they make wages more equal within occupations, and they help close racial and gender wage gaps.”
Business Insider
March 8, 2021
According to congressional testimony from the Economic Policy Institute last month, “Due to the impacts of structural racism and sexism, women and Black and Hispanic men are concentrated in low-wage jobs” and would greatly benefit from a higher minimum wage.
The Washington Informer
March 8, 2021
Kayla Blado will join the NLRB as press secretary later this month. She currently handles press for the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, and serves as president of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union.
Bloomberg Law
March 8, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, over thirty percent of Black workers would get a raise if the federal minimum wage increases. LGBT families of color would directly benefit because many Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming rank and file workers are employed in low wage service and food sector jobs.
LA Progressive
March 8, 2021
Losing our manufacturing prowess means sacrificing a vital part of America’s economic foundation, past, present and future: As a 2015 report from the Economic Policy Institute declared, “Manufacturing is by far the most important sector of the U.S. economy in terms of total output and employment.”
Forbes
March 8, 2021
According to a range of research compiled by the Economic Policy Institute, increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 would deliver pay increases for nearly 32 million workers, 21 percent of the entire U.S. workforce.
Truthout
March 8, 2021
According to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, the impact of the pandemic has revealed that African-American women, Latinas, as well as Asian women are in the greatest economic lag , since, for the most part, they have jobs in the service industry.
La Opinion
March 8, 2021
By the early 1970s, the union-avoidance industry had become a big business. Lawyers and consultants have since spent decades finding even more weaknesses in NLRB law and procedures, effectively thwarting the desires of workers to unionize. A 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that employers spend $340 million a year on union-avoidance consultants. In 2018, 48 percent of nonunion workers said they would join a union if they could; yet just 10.8 percent of workers belong to a union today. Between those two numbers is the union-avoidance industry doing the bidding of the bosses.
Jacobin
March 8, 2021