An analysis from the Economic Policy Institute called the report’s predicted impacts to job losses “just wrong and inappropriately inflated relative to what cutting-edge economics literature would indicate”.
The Independent
February 26, 2021
More than 1.3 million workers are subject to the tipped minimum wage, which allows employers to pay below minimum wage under the assumption that tips will bring up the total hourly pay, and make up the difference with a “tip credit.” The proposal attracted considerable attention in 2018 during a vicious battle in Washington, D.C., over Initiative 77, a ballot measure that repealed the tip credit only to later be reversed by the D.C. Council. Organizations such as the National Restaurant Association and Restaurant Workers of America, which launched an impressive astroturf campaign in the Initiative 77 fight, have been vocal opponents of a tipped wage repeal. Proponents of the tipped minimum wage argue that a repeal would be damaging to the restaurant industry, resulting in job losses, increased prices, or even closures. But analysis by the Economic Policy Institute does not support these claims and One Fair Wage notes that in states lacking a tipped minimum wage, the restaurant industry is actually experiencing growth.
In These Times
February 26, 2021
David Cooper, “Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers,” Economic Policy Institute, February 5, 2019, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/. ↩
Center for American Progress
February 26, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute reported that the minimum wage, if adjusted for inflation, should have exceeded $15 by 2020.
“Yet since the late 1960s, lawmakers have let the value of the minimum wage erode, allowing inflation to gradually reduce the buying power of a minimum wage income,” according to a 2019 report.
The Independent
February 26, 2021
The Post and Courier
February 26, 2021
FEATURING MONIQUE MORRISSEY – US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, known for his allegiance to Donald Trump, faced a House Oversight committee hearing this week where he said he intended to remain his position until kicked out. He told lawmakers, “get used to me.”
Rising Up with Sonali
February 26, 2021
The letter was spearheaded by the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit focused on anti-monopoly policies, and People’s Action, a network of community groups. Other progressive groups that signed on include the Working Families Party, Public Citizen, the Economic Policy Institute and the National Employment Law Project.
Huffington Post
February 26, 2021
Citing his own research and studies from the Economic Policy Institute, Reich testified to Congress in 2019 that the $15 an hour wage would positively affect 32 million American workers. Also, he notes that while opponents claim that restaurants will have to raise prices and thus lose business, research shows that sales don’t drop. “This finding is based on a study of 27 metropolitan areas by two researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston and an MIT economist,” he says.
Truthout
February 26, 2021
A national minimum wage of $15 would mean around one in five Americans earns more, the Economic Policy Institute found. It could also help reduce income equality, its research found, with women, minorities, and frontline workers benefiting the most.
Business Insider
February 26, 2021