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
“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
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
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
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
Andrew Hsu of National Public Radio notes that Economic Policy Institute (EPI) research finds that the measure would “boost income for people of color, who make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. Nearly one-third of African American workers and one-quarter of [Latinx] workers would see raises.”
Nonprofit Quarterly
February 12, 2021
Murphy, who introduced his bill in 2015 and is reintroducing it this year, cited an Economic Policy Institute study claiming that closing loopholes in the law will create 60,000 to 100,000 jobs.
TechTarget
February 12, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute, which receives some of its funding from labor unions, analyzed the same congressional proposal as the CBO but found more workers would see higher wages. It estimated the legislation would raise the pay of nearly 32 million workers and “meaningfully reduce the number of families in poverty.”
EPI also argues that a single, full-time worker without kids needs $15 an hour “to achieve a modest but adequate standard of living.”
FactCheck.org
February 12, 2021
But the jobless could fall off another cliff unless lawmakers keep extending jobless benefits, warns Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz, a former top Labor Department economist.
People's Weekly World
February 12, 2021
Limiting relief to the federal checks, without forcing wages to go up, takes the burden off the corporations who continue to underpay their workers. These same corporations were the primary beneficiaries of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. While keeping workers’ wages below poverty levels for decades, CEOs — in the top 1% — have seen their compensation increase by 940% since 1978. During the same period, a typical worker’s income has risen by only 12%. (Economic Policy Institute)
International Action Center
February 12, 2021