Media clips

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• March 2, 2021
  March 2, 2021
• CSPAN2 — U.S. Senate

  Contrary to popular misconceptions, most minimum wage workers are not teenagers according to the Economic Policy Institute. 59% of workers who would benefit from the federal minimum wage are women…two-thirds of them are the sole or primary bread winners of their family that count on the minimum wage. Nearly one in four workers who would receive a raise under a $15 minimum wage are Black or Latina women.

  C-SPAN March 2, 2021
• Jobless claims decline as coronavirus cases ease

  There is lag in the reporting of those numbers, but drops in one program may reflect movement into a different program, rather than a return to the work force, said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and the director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  New York Times March 1, 2021
• MSNBC’s Ali Velshi

  Costco announced last week it would raise minimum wage for US workers to $16 an hour. There are many misconceptions about minimum wage, who actually benefits from it. The Economic Policy Institute lays it out like this, many people think we’d be bettering the lives of teenagers who work part time after school who want extra spending money. That’s not the reality. The people who would benefit from $15 an hour are, on average, 35 years old, 59% are women, 28% of them have children, 54% of them work full time, and the majority are essential and frontline workers.

  MSNBC March 1, 2021
• MSNBC’s Ali Velshi

  I think it will pass if it doesn’t have it in it, but that’s a big loss for the country because if you raise the minimum wage as we’ve proposed and as the overwhelming majority of Americans support you are giving a raise to 32 million people, according to the Economic Policy Institute and you’re also helping directly the lives of children.

  MSNBC March 1, 2021
• The $15 minimum wage debate clarifies the partisan economic divide

  Cites productivity-pay chart.

  New York Magazine March 1, 2021
• Low-wage tax penalty risks sparking contract labor boom

  “The proposals to use the tax system aren’t anybody’s first choice for doing some kind of effective wage increase for low-wage workers,” said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that’s backed boosting the wage floor to $15 per hour.

  Bloomberg Tax March 1, 2021
• $15 minimum wage hopes dimmed for millions

  The measure would have given a pay raise to some 32 million workers, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.

  The Balance March 1, 2021
• $15 federal minimum wage in doubt as some lawmakers seek compromise

  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., dismissed the $10 proposal as “legislated poverty.” The Economic Policy Institute estimated the Romney-Cotton plan would only benefit 3.2% of the workforce, compared to more than 20% of workers who would see a raise if the federal minimum wage is increased to $15 per hour.

  Sinclair Broadcast Group March 1, 2021
• How raising minimum wage to $15 per hour could affect workers and small businesses

  Yet it’s “profoundly wrong” to characterize the minimum wage increase to $15 per hour as only benefitting teenagers, says Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  That’s because there are many full-time, adult hourly employees who are earning just above the minimum wage, but still earning less than $15 per hour. Only about 1 in 10 of those who would benefit from a $15 minimum wage are teenagers, Shierholz says.

  In fact, EPI’s research shows that more than half of those who would benefit from a $15 federal minimum wage are workers between 25 and 54, the majority of whom are women. Over a quarter of those workers have children.

  “Raising the minimum wage is long overdue. Workers today who are paid the current federal minimum wage are paid more 30% less in inflation-adjusted terms than their counterparts were paid 53 years ago,” Shierholz says.

  CNBC March 1, 2021