Along with a D.C.-based energy company, Revolution Solar, Wise has started a round of community workshops to introduce D.C. residents to the job opportunities offered by the solar industry. Wise, who is not an employee of the company, is trying to bring awareness of those possibilities as the city deals with a Black unemployment rate of 11.3 percent compared to a White unemployment rate of 2 percent in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Post
February 17, 2021
“It really does feel like a systemic change,” said Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “Before, it was all about the deficit, deficit, deficit — and anyone who did not agree was sidelined. Now, it is almost the flip side,” she said.
Bloomberg Government
February 17, 2021
Advocates say that raising wages at the bottom of the pay scale would help relieve income inequality, including racial disparities in earnings. The liberal Economic Policy Institute estimates that 31% of African Americans and 26% of Latinos would receive a raise if the federal minimum wage were elevated to $15 an hour.
Associated Press
February 17, 2021
David Cooper, senior analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, joins The Takeaway to discuss the debate over the $15 minimum wage at the federal level.
The Takeaway
February 17, 2021
“We believe that the CBO’s assumptions on the scale of job loss are just wrong and inappropriately inflated relative to what cutting-edge economics literature would indicate,” The Economic Policy Institute wrote in a blog post on the report. “The median employment effect of the minimum wage across studies of low-wage workers is essentially zero, according to a 2019 review of the evidence.”
Business Insider
February 17, 2021
+ “Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would benefit 27 million workers and would lead to a 10-year increase in wages of $333 billion for the low-wage work force—the same work force that has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 economic shock and worked in essential jobs that have kept the economy going,” the Economic Policy Institute reported on on Feb. 8.
Ms. Magazine
February 17, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for workers ages 16-24 jumped from 8.4 percent to 24.4 percent between spring 2019 and spring 2020, while the rate for ages 25 and older rose from 2.8 percent to 11.3 percent.
Rewire
February 17, 2021
Research has shown that a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour would be a huge boon to Americans and the economy, lifting the wages of 32 million workers, including nearly 60 percent of workers whose total family incomes are below the poverty line, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). It would particularly be helpful for Black and Latino workers, who are on average paid less than white workers, EPI says.
Truthout
February 17, 2021
A minimum wage increase would raise pay for 32 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Although it would likely be beneficial for millions of Americans, the Congressional Budget Office found that this hike would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty but could also mean a loss of 1.4 million jobs.
Business Insider
February 17, 2021