“In the United States, there’s a clear gender story here, but in the aggregate, it’s not about white women,” noted Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, in a blog post. “Black and Hispanic women experienced the most significant and disproportionate job losses in the pandemic recession.”
CBS Moneywatch
March 8, 2021
Not coincidently, CEO compensation packages became linked to share price, further rewarding short-term financial machinations to boost quarterly earnings, rather than making more strategic investments in plant, equipment and worker training. For management, this shift in priorities, often referred to as the era of “shareholder preeminence,” has paid off handsomely: According to the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute, since 1978, inflation-adjusted CEO compensation has risen by over 900 percent, but the average American worker has realized an increase of just under 11 percent. Yet when Americans begin to protest the inequality, “socialist” labels are quickly employed to create wedges between those most impacted, effectively discouraging the formation of electorally significant coalitions of workers.
Holland Sentinel
March 8, 2021
Women of color make up 52 percent of the domestic labor force, which numbers about 2 million in the U.S., including caregivers, cleaners, nannies and other workers, according to a report last year from the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. Undocumented immigrants are also about 20 percent of the workforce, which the report suggested could be an undercount.
NBC News
March 8, 2021
David Cooper, a senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused policy group, said the momentum for an increase will continue.
“I think we’re going to continue to keep hearing about this, even if it’s not at the federal level,” he said.
Bloomberg Law
March 8, 2021
Claire Kovach, senior research analyst at Keystone Research Center and co-author of the report, said data from the Economic Policy Institute showed the increase would put the state on a path to creating a high-wage, high-productivity economy that helps all working Pennsylvanians.
Keystone State News Connection
March 8, 2021
Without a meaningful union presence in American life, our gap between the rich and everyone else has reached levels unimaginable a half-century ago. CEO pay at major corporations, the Economic Policy Institute points out, has soared a stunning 1,167 percent since 1978. Over that same four decades, typical worker compensation has inched up a microscopic 13.7 percent, on average just a fraction of 1 percent per year.
Inequality.org
March 8, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, Black folks have been leaded the unemployment rates since the start of the pandemic. They noted that “in the first quarter of 2020, African American workers had the highest unemployment rate nationally, at 6.3%, following by Hispanic workers (at 4.8%), white workers (at 3.1%), and Asian workers (at 2.9%).” The states with the highest unemployment rates in 2020 were District of Columbia at 11.3%, followed by Pennsylvania at 10.2%, Louisiana at 10.0%, and Mississippi at 9.1%.
MadameNoire
March 8, 2021
An August report from left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI) highlighted the benefits that unions could bring to workers during the pandemic. For instance, they found that 94% of workers that are covered by a union contract have access to “employer-sponsored health benefits;” that’s the case for only 68% of nonunion workers.
“Meghan Markle illustrated the importance of unions and the crucial support they provide workers. When working people join a union, they have a voice on the job and the ability to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, and working conditions,” EPI policy associate Margaret Poydock said in a statement. “When unions are strong, they set wage standards for entire industries and occupations, they make wages more equal within occupations, and they help close racial and gender wage gaps.”
Business Insider
March 8, 2021
According to congressional testimony from the Economic Policy Institute last month, “Due to the impacts of structural racism and sexism, women and Black and Hispanic men are concentrated in low-wage jobs” and would greatly benefit from a higher minimum wage.
The Washington Informer
March 8, 2021
Kayla Blado will join the NLRB as press secretary later this month. She currently handles press for the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, and serves as president of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union.
Bloomberg Law
March 8, 2021