Supporters say the coronavirus has made a higher minimum wage all the more urgent since workers earning it are disproportionately people of color. The liberal Economic Policy Institute found that more than 19% of Hispanic workers and more than 14% of Black workers earned hourly wages that kept them below federal poverty guidelines in 2017.
Associated Press
February 16, 2021
A report from the Economic Policy Institute found that online learning and teaching are effective only if students have consistent access to the internet and computers and if teachers have received targeted training and support for online instruction.
Charlotte Observer
February 16, 2021
Actually, according to that same Congressional Budget Office, in 2019 the CBO said that $15 wage would boost the wages of 17 million people, while 1.7 million workers “could” become unemployed by 2025 due to the wage increase. Those are 17 million real people, with real families, whose lives would be improved.
However, Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, argued that the CBO’s estimated job losses from enacting a $15 minimum wage are “overstated.”
“The crucial fact is that an employment decline as a result of a minimum wage increase doesn’t necessarily mean any worker is actually worse off,” she wrote in a July 2019 report. “For a wide variety of reasons, a sizable share of low-wage workers routinely cycle in and out of employment; each quarter, more than 20% of the lowest-wage workers leave or start a job.”
Gaston Gazette
February 16, 2021
“We have seen this failure before, with fiscal recovery efforts following the Great Recession of 2008-2009 that were insufficient and too short-lived,” Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, wrote this past fall. “As a result of this austerity, it took a full decade for the labor market to return to even its pre-Great Recession health.”
Fortune
February 16, 2021
A federal minimum wage hike to $15 would affect a large share of workers in the South, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank.
Yahoo Finance
February 16, 2021
State AGs’ interest in the workplace is an outgrowth of their civil rights, labor, and consumer protection responsibilities and powers under state law. Urged on by groups such as the non-partisan think tank, the Economic Policy Institute, they have stepped in to interpret state executive orders and new legislative protections for workers, and provide guidance and resources to help employers address workplace safety and workers’ rights.
Bloomberg Law
February 16, 2021
On average, restaurant workers make just below $13 an hour, according to Labor Department data. Retail cashier pay is about the same. That’s less than half the economy-wide average of nearly $30 an hour.
“It tells the story of an economy that has really tanked for the most vulnerable,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “It’s shocking how small a dent that has made in the aggregate.”
Associated Press
February 16, 2021
What is more, the investment would pay dividends for school systems. The Economic Policy Institute found that for every $1 invested in capital improvements to education facilities, $1.50 in eventual economic development in the community is generated. A Quarterly Journal of Economics study found that educational advancement, housing prices and school enrollment increases follow suit.
Detroit Free Press
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