Media clips

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• Priced Out: The Federal Minimum Wage And Pandemic Childcare Credits

  Annie Lowrey, Luke Shaefer, Heidi Shierholz and Michael Saltsman join us for the conversation.

  1A March 3, 2021
• Reverend Barber on Morning Joe

  Reverend Barber mentions EPI study.

  MSNBC March 3, 2021
• Biden’s trade policy will prioritize workers’ rights

  That, said Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute, is “a big contrast” from the past.

  “Pre-Trump, both Democrats and Republicans, for a couple of decades, put in place trade policies that were definitely not worker-centric,” Lee said. Instead, they were, “I would say, corporate-centric.”

  She said former President Donald Trump was able to harness latent resentment around jobs and industries that were lost over the years, and that is clearly something the Biden administration has tuned in to.

  Marketplace March 3, 2021
• Fewer Americans are earning less than $15 an hour, but Black and Hispanic women make up a bigger share of them

  Our data is used in a chart.

  Washington Post March 3, 2021
• Americans’ wages have gone up, but the news is not all good

  The average paycheck for American workers has gotten bigger during the pandemic. Ordinarily that would be cause to jump for joy. But the reason for this increase is grim: Millions of low-income jobs are gone, and that has pushed average pay higher.

  “When the bottom drops out, the average is different,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told CNN Business.

  CNNMoney March 3, 2021
• Point: Congress should vote for a $15 federal minimum wage

  Without the specter of massive job losses and soaring prices looming over minimum wage debates, there is no substantive policy reason to oppose an increase to $15 an hour. According to a forthcoming study from the Economic Policy Institute, a $15 minimum wage as implemented by the “Raise the Wage Act of 2021” would raise the wages of 21 percent of working Americans by an average of $3,300 a year and 59 percent of workers who live below the poverty level would see increases in their pay.

  Daily Collegian March 3, 2021
• Opinion: Congress should provide automatic, recurring COVID-19 relief checks until the jobs market recovers from the pandemic

  The evidence shows that combining checks with targeted programs is extremely effective. Recent analyses from the Urban Institute and the Economic Policy Institute found that combining checks with expanded unemployment benefits in the summer of 2020 kept upwards of 12 million people from falling into poverty — the majority of whom benefitted from direct checks.

  MarketWatch March 3, 2021
• Reader Comment: Chamber supports Twin Falls School District levy

  According to research from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy, a forward-thinking approach to investing in education will help to equip today’s and tomorrow’s citizens with the skills and attitudes they need for economic and civic success.

  MagicValley.com March 3, 2021
• Ruling Class Joe and the Essence of American Politics

  Then there’s the pathetically low federal minimum wage. Labor and civil rights activists have long called for the national wage floor to be raised to $15 an hour, which translates (assuming 40 hours a week for 50 weeks) to $30,000 a year, equivalent to less than a quarter of the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) no-frills Basic Family Budget for a family of two parents and two children in the New York City borough (and New York State county) of Queens.

  Counterpunch March 3, 2021
• Hold On To Your Hat: Is Ocasio-Cortez Right About The Minimum Wage?

  And the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), among other worker-advocate groups, disputed some of the CBO’s findings, claiming that there would be little to no effect on employment. Plus, the EPI said there would be other benefits that would save billions.

  “If the 2021 Raise the Wage Act were passed and the federal hourly minimum wage increased to $15 by 2025, we estimate that annual government expenditures on major public assistance programs would fall by between $13.4 billion and $31.0 billion,” the EPI wrote this month.

  The Daily Wire March 3, 2021