Even without an economics degree, Bernstein, whose interest in social work focused on poverty and inequality, has had extensive econometric training. Formerly the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Biden under the Obama administration, Bernstein has also held senior roles at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on low- and middle-income workers; the U.S. Department of Labor; the Congressional Budget Office; and most recently, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Yale Daily News
February 3, 2021
Since 1979, productivity has risen six times faster than hourly compensation for the typical U.S. worker, according to a 2019 analysis from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute.
Cincinnati Enquirer
February 3, 2021
Black people and other people of color are overrepresented as essential workers at high risk of being infected, according to the Economic Policy Institute. People of color have lost more jobs during the pandemic than whites, according to the Urban Institute, leaving them disproportionately uninsured and facing eviction, which can increase the likelihood of dying from COVID-19.
National Catholic Reporter
February 3, 2021
“It is something that is taught to graduate students in economics. It is part of the toolkit,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who studied under Dube at UMass and has published papers with him. “I’m trying not to fawn too much, but he is exceedingly smart and very creative, and he tries to answer big questions.”
Bloomberg
February 3, 2021
Of course, the survey covers only those fortunate enough to have retirement savings. Every person surveyed had at least $50,000 in retirement savings, with the median $188,800. Data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in 2019, as cited by Grace Kay of Business Insider, illustrate the relative privilege of those surveyed by Kiplinger. As Kay explains, “Nearly half of Americans between the ages of 32 and 61 do not have any retirement savings and most of those that do have savings under $21,000.”
Nonprofit Quarterly
February 3, 2021
While the opening of an Amazon warehouse increases warehousing employment at the county level by more than 30% after two years, private-sector employment across all industries doesn’t budge, according to a 2018 report by the left-leaning non-profit think tank Economic Policy Institute.
“Our findings of the lack of overall job growth from opening an Amazon fulfillment centers suggest that some sort of employment displacement is taking place, or that the growth in warehousing jobs is too limited to spill over into broad-based employment gains for the overall local economy,” the report said.
MarketWatch
February 3, 2021
Thus, the effect of the inaccurate titles has been to bury a story about massive wage theft. Wage theft is a massive problem in the United States. A 2017 study from the Economic Policy Institute across ten U.S. states found that 2.4 million minimum wage workers were being defrauded out of an average of $64 per week, equating to $8 billion annual losses. For many, their employer is far more likely to steal from them than a masked robber. Yet this is rarely the sort of violation that “tough on crime” politicians have in mind when they deploy that rhetoric. And when the public thinks of crime, wage theft is rarely high on the list, thanks, in no small part, to how the media downplays corporate crime where the rich steal from the poor.Mint
Mint Press News
February 3, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said a $15 minimum wage would lower expenditures on public-assistance programs by between $13.4 billion and $31 billion annually, in the form of fewer tax credits and less nutrition assistance. Those effects are why some Democrats say a minimum-wage increase could advance through a process known as reconciliation, requiring just a simple majority in the Senate.
Fox Business
February 3, 2021
If this change takes place, it’s estimated that nearly 32 million workers will see an increase in their pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The majority of these workers, according to EPI data, will be women and people of color. Right now, 59% of workers who would benefit from a $15 minimum wage are women, with nearly one in four of these women being Latina or Black. African Americans make up 31% of the workforce that would benefit from a minimum wage increase and Latinos make up 26%, reports EPI.
CNBC
February 3, 2021