Media clips

• We don’t love our teachers as much as we say we do

  In a simple comparison of weekly wages (thus accounting for summers off), the Economic Policy Institute found that, between 2013 and 2017 in the U.S., a public school teacher with a bachelor’s degree earned a weekly average of $980, whereas a comparable non-teaching college graduate earned an average of $1,326 per week. There is clearly a disparity here, especially considering a teacher’s workday is often longer than the typical school day.

  UConn Daily Campus February 9, 2021
• CBO: $15 minimum wage hike would cost 1.4M jobs, lift 900K out of poverty

  The CBO says Medicaid spending would increase, in part, because so many care workers would receive raises.

  “We certainly hope they are right, and, since the costs are already accounted for in the cost estimate, we urge state policymakers to hold Medicaid services constant in the face of higher labor costs,” said the Economic Policy Institute in a statement. “The care workforce provides extraordinarily valuable services yet is among the most underpaid in the economy, due largely to historical legacies of racial and gender discrimination. The pay increase this workforce would get under a higher federal minimum wage would be among the most valuable outcomes of making this law.”

  Yahoo Finance February 9, 2021
• First 100: The House sets the marker

  That CBO report dropped yesterday, and there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is it’s just a terrible report. It assumes that, while 27 million people would get a raise, there would be 1.4 million jobs lost (over 10 years, so that sounds a lot bigger than it is). That plays havoc with all the budgetary implications. There are higher unemployment insurance costs, higher interest on the national debt, and higher prices for goods and services baked in. Basically CBO tried to model the entire economy and national expenditures based on this one change.

  It also based that model on arbitrarily choosing seven research studies about minimum wage increases and then over-emphasizing the negative ones, as Arin Dube explains. If CBO used the methodology it used in 2019 to look at a previous minimum wage bill, it would have shown a 1.1 million job loss. Instead it showed 1.4 million, and that drift is completely at odds with the latest research. A fiery call from the Economic Policy Institute yesterday savaged the CBO score. “Normally we don’t like to yell at the referees,” said AFL-CIO economist Bill Spriggs. “But in this regard, the CBO has stepped outside its bounds and is not speaking truth to power, but is giving information that is misleading.”

  The American Prospect February 9, 2021
• La importancia de ir a clase

  Las autoras del estudio son Emma García, economista del Economic Policy Institute y Teachers College, de la Universidad de Columbia, y Elaine Weiss, directora de políticas de la National Academy of Social Insurance e investigadora del Economic Policy Institute.

  La Opinion February 9, 2021
• Estancados en el medio de la pandemia: para muchos hispanos la recuperación no llega
  “La pandemia expuso las desigualdades que ya estaban presentes”, dijo a Univision Noticias Daniel Pérez, economista del Economic Policy Institute.

  Salarios bajos, discriminación, poco acceso a beneficios como un seguro de salud o licencias en caso de emergencias familiares y menos posibilidades de trabajar desde casa y evitar así enfermarse con covid-19, les han hecho más difícil enfrentar la crisis.

  …

  Si bien en enero la economía de Estados Unidos creó 49,000 empleos, en el rubro del ocio y en el minorista, por ejemplo, hubo un declive en la cantidad de puestos trabajo: de 61,000 en el primer caso y 37,800 en el segundo.

  “No veo que se dé una recuperación pronto. Creo que será una recuperación lenta y dolorosa para los latinos que trabajan en las industrias en la primera línea, salvo que haya una red de seguridad más robusta y se concreten las promesas hechas por la nueva administración a esos trabajadores”, explicó Pérez.
  Univision February 9, 2021
• H-1B visa: Outsourcers’ group welcomes Biden administration delay on lottery rule

  A May report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and Howard University professor Ron Hira, who studies the H-1B, concluded that outsourcers comprise half of the top 30 H-1B employers and “make heavy use of the H-1B program.” Major Silicon Valley technology firms “take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill,” the report said.

  The Mercury News February 9, 2021
• Raising minimum wage without caveat could lead to lost jobs for those with disabilities, Steil and advocates say

  In Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District — which includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties and parts of four other counties, and is represented by Janesville Republican Bryan Steil — an estimated 28% of workers (97,000 people in total) would be directly affected by the increase to a minimum wage of $15, according to a model from the Economic Policy Institute based on federal data.

  The average wage increase for those workers would be 18%. Of those 97,000 workers: less than half of them (38,000) would be 16-24 years old. And 44,000 of them would be 25-54 years old.

  The Journal Times February 9, 2021
• State legislatures are trying to run American cities

  I would go further than that. State legislative attempts to override the authority of local governments strip communities of their right to self-governance. Particularly in a state like Texas, where rural and suburban communities exert outsized influence in shaping policy at the state level, state-set limits to local governmental control deny urban Texans their voice and representation on the local issues that often have the greatest impact on their lives and communities. It shouldn’t be a surprise that, too frequently, these are issues that disproportionately affect people of color. “You have these predominantly white state legislators making decisions and setting ceilings that keep communities of color from putting into place policies,” says Julia Wolfe, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, who spoke to Governing.

  D Magazine February 9, 2021
• 7 Things: Shelby confirms he’s retiring in 2022, impeachment silliness begins again, vaccinations ramping up while coronavirus numbers in Alabama go way down and more …

  Nearly half of a congressional district would get a raise with a $15 minimum wage

  • U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) has previously supported regional increases in minimum wage based on the cost of living. Now, the debate over raising the minimum wage to $15 is back. In Sewell’s district, 43% of workers would receive a pay raise if the minimum wage increased to $15, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This would average out to a 22% increase for those workers, or $4,700 per year.
  Yellowhammer News February 9, 2021
• Column: CBO attacks plan for higher minimum wage — or does it?

  Proponents focused on the positives in the analysis. “CBO finds that for a very small relative cost to the government, the benefits of the Raise the Wage Act are enormous,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute, said during a conference call scheduled Monday by her organization.

  “It will increase the average incomes of low- and lower-middle-income families, it will reduce poverty, it will shift money from corporate profits toward wages of low-income workers, it will reduce inequality,” Shierholz said.

  LA Times February 9, 2021