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
KALW San Francisco
February 3, 2021
Additionally, the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, argues that a $15 federal minimum wage would decrease dependence on federal welfare programs by at least $13 billion annually.
Reason
February 3, 2021
“I am not often optimistic,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “But I am optimistic now.”
The Associated Press
February 3, 2021
Lastly, The Economic Policy Institute (2019), in what has been deemed the most comprehensive metastudy on the impacts of a significant minimum wage increase, examined the effects of 138 state minimum wage changes that occurred in the United States between 1979 and 2014. They found that “even with minimum wages rising as high as 55 percent of the median wage, there was no evidence of any reduction in the total number of jobs for low-wage workers”.
UConn Daily Campus
February 2, 2021
As a result, white families’ average net wealth was seven times higher than Black families’ in 2017, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute published that year.
The Temple News
February 2, 2021
Some proponents also claim the bill would attract new manufacturing companies to the state. But studies by the Economic Policy Institute have found similar laws in other states have little to no positive impact on job growth.
Public News Service
February 2, 2021