“When she looks at policy that impacts workers, it’s not just looking at overall effects, it’s looking at what are going to be the distributional effects,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy for the Economic Policy Institute. “What’s going to be the impact on racial equity? What’s going to be the impact on gender equity? What’s going to be the impact on the intersection of those two things?”
Bloomberg Law
February 16, 2021
For those on strike on Tuesday, $15 an hour is an urgent ask. The raise would increase the incomes of 32 million workers, including 59% percent of working families with incomes under the poverty line, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Nearly one third of all Black workers would receive a raise, and one out of four workers who would benefit would be a Black or Latina woman.
Fast Company
February 16, 2021
Max B. Sawicky is an economist and writer in the wilds of Virginia. He has worked at the Government Accountability Office and the Economic Policy Institute.
Jacobin
February 16, 2021
Other economists have disputed the CBO’s job-loss predictions – the Economic Policy Institute called them “wrong, and inappropriately inflated”. The long-running debate about the real cost of raising the minimum age will no doubt continue. What is certain is that Biden will face enormous political blowback if his campaign promise to raise the minimum wage falls so early in his presidency – a promise that during his campaign he argued was central to his plans to address racial inequality.
The Guardian
February 16, 2021
Detroit News
February 16, 2021
Undeniably, many older Americans cannot afford to retire. This also contributes to the aging workforce – the average 56- to 61-year-old has savings of just $163,577. This, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
401k TV
February 16, 2021
Those who don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan can fall behind without perks such as employers’ matching contributions or the auto-enrollment of employees. As a result, 1 in 4 American workers don’t have even $10,000 saved for retirement.
“For many demographic groups, the typical working-age household either has no retirement account savings at all or only a trivial amount,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
February 16, 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 16, 2021
It would even provide relief to middle-income parents for whom quality child care can be hard to find and even harder to afford. The average cost of child care for an infant in Massachusetts is nearly $21,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. A family with an infant and a four-year-old spend over $36,000 a year.
Boston Globe
February 16, 2021
But as economist Heidi Shierholz of the progressive Economic Policy Institute pointed out to us, most economists now believe that a higher minimum wage does not lead to substantial and widespread job losses.
“That’s become a gospel that simply isn’t true,” Shierholz says.
Even the CBO points out the substantial benefits: Up to 27 million workers would receive higher wages and pay more in taxes, raising government revenue. Federal spending on SNAP food stamp benefits and similar programs would decline.
Higher wages also lower employee turnover, Shierholz says, and that benefits businesses. “It reduces the chaos in people’s lives,” she says. “If their car breaks down, they don’t have to leave their job that requires a car to get there. They can afford to fix their car.”
The Chicago Sun Times
February 16, 2021