Last week marks the 47th straight week of initial unemployment claims totaling more than the worst week of the Great Recession, a fact that Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, says makes a strong case for further stimulus.
Courthouse News Service
February 16, 2021
Andy Pudzer and John Hartly see the hard-hitting costs hidden in Joe Biden’s minimum-wage increase proposal: From the piece:
In his attempt to overcome the Byrd rule, Sanders has cited new studies from two sources with a history of highly partisan research in support of minimum-wage hikes. Authored by the Economic Policy Institute and Berkeley economist Michael Reich these studies claim that a $15 federal minimum wage would positively impact the federal budget by tens of billions of dollars per year through increased tax revenue and reduced costs for public-assistance programs. Reich claims hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would positively impact the federal budget to the tune of $65.4 billion a year.
The National Review
February 16, 2021
In 2017, more than one in four Black households had a nonexistent or negative net worth. That compares to fewer than one in 10 for White families, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Investopedia
February 16, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that nearly a third of all Black workers would get a raise under the Raise the Wage Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it could also raise wages for 17 million workers overall. Another 10 million workers earning just above $15 could also see an increase.
Counterpunch
February 16, 2021
State and local governments have had to carry much of the burden of the COVID-19 response through the past year, it said.
And it pointed to arguments from the liberal Economic Policy Institute and others that the federal response to the Great Recession in 2007 and 2008 slowed the economic recovery by not providing enough federal funding.
“We cannot repeat this same mistake,” the letter said.
The Frederick News-Post
February 16, 2021
Part of the reason for the shortage has to do with pay and working conditions. On average, teachers make roughly 20% less than other college graduates, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on worker issues. A majority of teachers work additional jobs – either within or outside their schools – to supplement their pay.
The Conversation
February 16, 2021
“I would like to see the Biden admin do this administratively – they have a crowded legislative agenda and this is one of the things they can do with executive power,” says Josh Bivens, economist and director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. “So, anything they can do themselves and de-clutter the legislative bottleneck is something I think they should do.”
CNBC
February 16, 2021
By 2024, such agreements would apply to roughly 80 percent of private-sector employees not in a union, according to an estimate in May 2019 by the nonpartisan research nonprofit the Economic Policy Institute and the pro-worker social justice advocacy group The Center for Popular Democracy.
Women's Wear Daily
February 16, 2021
I’ll do the math for you: that’s 1.13 million out-of-work Americans seeking benefits for the first time. If you think that’s an okay number, consider this from the Economic Policy Institute: it’s “the 47th straight week total initial (traditional) claims were greater than the worst week of the Great Recession.” The weekly number before we fell off the earth a year or so ago? Around 215,000.
Newsweek
February 16, 2021
A 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C., found that public school teachers in every state are paid less than their similarly educated peers. Arizona teachers faced the worst salary penalty: 32.6 percent.
AZ Mirror
February 16, 2021