Media clips

• Weak jobs report shows we need more federal stimulus — now

  Economist Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute points out that we are “down 9.9 million jobs since February 2020,” just before the pandemic hit.  And if the economy had kept growing instead of collapsing, we should have 12.1 million more jobs than we do.

  Forbes February 8, 2021
• President Biden pledges to fix the racial wealth gap. Here are his plans

  Under Biden’s plan, the pay boost would give 31% of Black and 26% of Latino workers a raise, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning research group.

  CNBC February 8, 2021
• Biden taps New York Fed market chief as National Security Deputy

  Thea Lee, president of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute, praised the NSC staffing moves, saying the White House is seeking to “put workers directly into the international economic policy decision making.”

  “Too often worker voices or worker advocates have been brought in after the policy is already formed, and it’s too late at that point to build in a worker rights component or a jobs lens,” said Lee, former AFL-CIO chief international economist and deputy chief of staff.

  Bloomberg February 8, 2021
• $15 minimum wage is a change long overdue

  As stated in an article from the Economic Policy Institute: “A $15 minimum wage would begin to reverse decades of growing pay inequality between the most underpaid workers and workers receiving close to the median wage, particularly along gender and racial lines. For example, minimum wage increases in the late 1960s explained 20% of the decrease in the Black–white earnings gap in the years that followed, whereas failures to adequately increase the minimum wage after 1979 account for almost half of the increase in inequality between women at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution.

  The Guilfordian February 5, 2021
• “Stolen” Back Wages Paid to NC Farmworkers in Class-Action Lawsuit

  In 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated about one thousand cases of agricultural wage theft, according to the Economic Policy Institute. More than 200,000 workers traveled to the U.S. that year on H-2A visas, and some of their advocates believe wage-theft incidents are much higher.

  Public News Service February 5, 2021
• Another 779,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week
  It was also the 46th straight week that initial claims were higher than they were in the worst week of the Great Recession, wrote Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, on Twitter.
  CNN February 5, 2021
• A $15 federal minimum wage could be on the horizon but economists are mixed on how it may pass and its impact

  Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said minimum wage raises are exceptionally popular among the public. A 2019 Pew Research Survey found that two-thirds of Americans supported raising the minimum wage to $15.

  Business Insider February 5, 2021
• As raising minimum wage becomes possible, researchers and owners debate benefits

  In Indiana, the minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour. If tips combined with hourly wage is less than $7.25, then the employer is required to make up the difference. However, a report published by the Economic Policy Institute in 2014 found widespread violation of this requirement.

  The Exponent February 5, 2021
• Barriers for Black Professionals

  Meanwhile, Battle and others worry that Black professionals are more likely to experience layoffs during the crisis than their white counterparts. Even in a strong economy, Black workers with college degrees are more likely to be unemployed than white workers with a similar education, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  SHRM February 5, 2021
• COVID-19 Economic Recovery Investments Must Benefit American Workers

  Policymakers can look to the recent past to better understand the need for public sector investments and job quality protections. An analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the economic recovery following the Great Recession was significantly slower as a result of federal aid to state and local governments drying up too early.19 Unsurprisingly, cities and states were more successful at maintaining public jobs when aid was longer-term and included job retention requirements.20 Indeed, policymakers can help ensure that working families benefit by making needed investments in the public sector now.

  1. Olugbenga Ajilore, “White men are doing mostly fine without more economic relief from Washington, but just about everyone else is suffering,” MarketWatch, October 30, 2020, available at https://www.marketwatch.com/story/white-men-are-doing-mostly-fine-without-more-economic-relief-from-washington-but-just-about-everyone-else-is-suffering-11604069374#; Michael Madowitz, Anne Price, and Christian E. Weller, “Public Work Provides Economic Security for Black Families and Communities” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2020), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2020/10/23/492209/public-work-provides-economic-security-black-families-communities/; Jeffrey Keefe, “Public-sector workers are paid less than their private-sector counterparts—and the penalty is larger in right-to-work states,” Economic Policy Institute, January 14, 2016, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/public-sector-workers-are-paid-less-than-their-private-sector-counterparts-and-its-much-worse-in-right-to-work-states/.
  2. David Cooper, “Without federal aid, many state and local governments could make the same budget cuts that hampered the last economic recovery,” Economic Policy Institute, May 27, 2020, available https://www.epi.org/blog/without-federal-aid-many-state-and-local-governments-could-make-the-same-budget-cuts-that-hampered-the-last-economic-recovery/.
  Center for American Progress February 5, 2021